<p>She can apply EA to MIT and Caltech and ED to Cornell. With Cornell you are also required to submit certain financial information so she can get a financial aid estimate near time of acceptance. With EA at MIT and Caltech, it is non-binding and you don’t have to respond until May 1, and financial aid follows the same process and timeline as regular admission applicants and you won’t get any estimate in Dec if admitted EA. If financial aid is a real concern that usually means one should not be applying ED because it is binding and not likening what you get is not supposed to be a reason to reneg but often if th epackage is insufficient the school will let you escape ED.</p>
<p>As to whether she has a chance at those colleges, her test scores and grades are in range but no higher than most for those schools and on the lower side of the middle 50% for Caltech and MIT. No one should ever assume that those schools are anything but a reach no matter what your stats since they take a low percentage of applicants. She should have other colleges, including potentially your state college,to apply to that have higher admission rates.</p>