<p>At $63,000 gross income with other kids you are looking at a parental contribution of around $4000 at any of Princeton, Yale , Harvard, Wiliams, Columbia. If this causes you grief your daughter would have the option of borrowing another $3000 or so on her own account the loan portion of her aid. So for maximally $12000 (less than the price of a second hand car) she can afford to go to any place that accepts her. Stop obsessing about what is essentially small change to anyone and let her make her choice about what college fits her best.</p>
<p>For what it is worth, as parent of a daughter with exactly the same profile as yours, she is giving nothing away and potentially getting an unparalleled education by exploring science together with liberals arts. The ability to do so is the glory of American higher education and highly encouraged at any of the places she aspires to attend. Count your blessings that she will undoubtedly be given th opportunity to follow her star.</p>
<p>hahahahah you are looking $3000 number and I am looking $39,000. If even one of these elite college offer my kid admission and ask me to pay below $6000, I would do so in a hear beat. </p>
<p>My worry has been if one single college would offer her admission despite having such a large need. </p>
<p>Seriously that is why I came to USA as it is a place which awards hard work and dedication.</p>
<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>
<p>Actually, Princeton, Yale and several others all fill roughly half the seats from the early pool; Yale probably goes the farthest in this direction if you include early pool applicants who are deferred and admitted later. </p>
<p>At the larger Harvard and Stanford, 45% of the seats are filled from the early pool.</p>
<p>There is little to be gained, strategically, from applying to a school within this group that is not your first choice. At each, your chances of admission are substantially enhanced by applying early. Within this group, only Princeton has the negative of forcing you to accept if admitted, and forcing you to withdraw other pending applications. </p>
<p>So strategically, Princeton ED is the least attractive option if you merely want to gain admission to the best school possible, preserving your ability to choose among several places to whch you may have gained admission. Presumably, this is why far fewer apply ED to Princeton than SCEA to Stanford, Harvard and Yale.</p>
<p>There is one other factor to consider in your financial aid calculations, assets. If you have substantial assets, even without income, you likely will be expected to pay more. It gets more complicated if you own a farm or business.</p>