“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.”
It’s ok for the colleges to game the system by adding ED2 option and taking more kids via ED, but not for the students to game the system? College admission is already tilted to the colleges and ED tilts it even more by locking in students and parents. The GCs should be looking for the best interest of the students not colleges.