@SouthernHope “the absolute top colleges announce last.”
We approached this with our DD by discussing it openly. We made sure that DD understood that she would probably be rejected numerous times during this process, and that she should try not to take it personally. Additionally, it is important to be sure that heading into Ivy Day, she already had acceptances to a few schools where she would have been very happy to attend. That is where EA is very helpful. We also advised her to be hopeful, but prepared to be rejected.
To further drive this point home, in advance of Ivy Day, DD and I developed an admitted student travel plan with her for each possible scenario. We developed a travel plan in the case that she was admitted to no additional schools, and discussed how that plan might change depending on any additional admissions. I think doing that helped her to be completely prepared.