1 is budget. #2 -- see #1. #3 -- see #1.
If you don’t know what the budget is, then everything else you do is garbage. Driving at night without the headlights on.
If you get into Harvard but can’t pay for it, then you are not going to Harvard.
Which is the same as not going to Harvard because you didn’t get in. Which is the same as not going to Harvard because you never even applied.