Our HS guidance department was pretty upfront with kids and parents. They wouldn’t enable anything that wasn’t by the book. Not because of your kid- but because of all the kids that come after yours- next year and the year after. So a kid who was applying ED was doing so because it was his or her top choice, period full stop, and the ONLY reason not to accept is if the financial package was just unworkable. Not because you changed your mind, not because you like your ED2 school a little more, not because your BF thought your ED school was too far away and it wasn’t serious back in October but it is now that it’s December. And not because you were clever enough to have your cake and eat it too.
Financial reasons and that’s it.
Our guidance department would flip out at the idea that kids were not just gaming ED (i.e. applying to Penn ED even though you like Princeton more because if you don’t apply to Penn ED you might not get in at all, etc.) but also sequencing EA and ED2 down the road.
So Dunagaree- go in peace. But make sure you are transparent with the college counselors. If you burn that bridge you may not be happy with the result.