<p>Last year we were in the same predicament. You should apply RD to a lot of schools and see what the FA offers are. You never know what will happen from a FA perspective. You will be very competitive for many merit scholarships. You can contact individual schools to see if you can get a waiver on the application fee. As noted in many of the posts above, you will be surprised at the number of great choices you will have. My S wound up attending a school that was not even on our radar at the beginning of the search.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>