I can’t agree more with @Dolemite about how helpful it is to have an admissions early in hand to a good school that your S would like. It really takes the pressure off and lets you narrow your list if your S gets in, and if he doesn’t, it’s a good wake up call that you need to add more likelies. If the early app college rejected your S and you thought his acceptance was strongly likely based on his stats, at that point your S can ask his GC to review his application and recommendations to make sure there’s nothing there that’s a turn-off, and if there is that can be corrected before he submits his other apps.