<p>Thanks for your suggestions. They are very informative. Among aforementioned elite schools, Princeton, UChicago and Rice appear best fit for our interests, and followed by Harvard, UVA , UNC/Duke, Vanderbilt, and USC. </p>
<p>For an applicant from a middle-class family with household income of $75,000 per anon, we learned that admission standards of highly competitive full-ride programs of UVA and UNC/Duke are as rigorous (or difficult) as those of Harvard and Princeton. From that standpoint, we sort of envy those high academic-achieving seniors from TJHSST who cannot afford sticker prices of HYPSM but still have in-state tuition option for top quality public universities, e.g., UVA and/or W&M. Our safety university is U of Washington.</p>