<p>Now I am confused. I just finished telling you that if your gross income is $63,000, and you have other kids, your daughter will likely get about $37,000 -$39,000 in grant aid at any place she applies. Her college budget off the top of my head will likely look something like this </p>
<p>Tuition~33,000
Room&Board ~10,000
Personal Expenses ~ 3000
Travel Allowance ~ 500
Health Insurance ~ 1200</p>
<p>Total Budget is therefore about $ 47,700</p>
<p>Her Resources will likely be computed as follows:
College Grant ~ 37,500
Self help offer (Job and/or Loan to student) ~ 4000
Parental Contribution~5000
Student Vacation earning ~ 1500 </p>
<p>Total Resources are thus 48,000 which is within spitting distance of her computed need. The numbers in any one of the categories may vary by one or two thousand dollars depending on the school, but I would be suprised if the imputed Family contribution at Harvard/Yale/Princeton ( Parent contribution plus student vacation earning) would be very much greater than the $6000 Princeton told you. Depending on how badly a particular school might want her the required family contribution might be 2000 or so less, but unless she is very much less intelligent than her SAT scores would seem to suggest she is unlikely to let her dream school slip by for $ 2000/yr in loans. </p>
<p>As for admission at any one of these colleges, obviously with her credentials she will get in somewhere. Her problem is essentially to decide where to apply ED/SCEA. If I were holding her hand and was neutral as to the school I would apply ED to Williams or Princeton. The money will be the same as if she applied to SCEA to Yale or Harvard but her odds of getting in significantly better for the reason Scottie told you: Princeton selects a significantly larger portion of the class ED than Yale/Harvard and may not have room for her if she applies RD. Beyond that I would not worry. Why not apply Princeton with Harvard as an alternate and Yale as a backup and leave it in the hands of the gods?</p>