<p>Frozen-Tears - listen to Northstarmom! You appear to be a strong RD applicant, but if your parents cannot afford $34000/year to send you to Princeton, then DO NOT APPLY ED. If they can afford that much, go ahead and use your ED card, but the edge is not worth risking all your acceptances, you can be happy at Harvard or Stanford, you really can!</p>
<p>voron - thats not true many schools still require 3 SAT 2s, among those are HYPSMC</p>
<p>shrek, no one requires SIX SAT IIs! That was my point. Also, Yale will accept the ACT in place of BOTH the SAT I and SAT IIs (Same with Brown). Stanford does NOT require the SAT IIs.</p>
<p>I don't think schools are going to accept the Writing as an SAT II after I take the new SAT. Physics is still tentative; that makes it four. And Literature will only be for the four free score reports, which would cost $60 to send from ETS but only $24 to send by taking the SAT II.</p>
<p>Some schools that will still take the old SAT I for the class of 2006 will accept the writing SAT if that's combined with the old SAT I. </p>
<p>No college is likely to take the Writing SAT II if they require the new SAT I plus some SAT IIs.</p>
<p>Apply where you want to go, but Princeton would probably give you the best aid.</p>
<p>As I was saying, I probably won't qualify for much if any need-based aid. Even if P-ton gave me a very generous aid package, it would still be $32,000 a year or so. So I'm looking at merit aid.</p>
<p>Northstarmom suggested negotiating financial aid with schools such as Emory or Vanderbilt. There are ten schools on my list already; should I add a couple more? Or is it possible to negotiate with comparable schools, such as Caltech and Stanford?</p>
<p>So, ED Princeton is more or less not feasible; I'm left with a toss-up between EAs to Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. I've been hearing that EA Yale is very difficult...</p>
<p>Princeton has perhaps the nation's most generous financial aid program. You should not worry about applying ED (especially if it is Princeton - they agree to meet 100% of need). But under ED you are allowed to reject an acceptance offer if you are offered better financial aid elsewhere. So go with your heart and be happy. Good Luck.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the feedback, everyone!</p>
<p>If you don't qualify for much need based aid, I agree with cangel and northstarmom - do not apply early decision if you are interested in financial packages. The schools on your list (HYPS) don't give merit aid, except paltry National Merit. I would apply ea to Harvard or Stanford, and then apply to Princeton RD as well as some schools which may give very generous merit awards to someone with your record. When all the decisions are in, you will have a lot of choices. Use the next year to fully explore all of your schools and see which ones fit you and why. As wonderful as you may think P is, it may not be the right fit after all is said and done.
You sound more like a Stanford girl to me, but I only have a tiny glimpe of you. Good luck - and take veronwe's advice about having fun to heart. You don't sound like a grind to me, but you should watch out for that. Play up your creative side!</p>
<p>HPYS give no merit aid, not even for National Merit scholars. Stanford gives athletic scholarships, no merit aid.</p>
<p>Give careful thought to what all here say. But know this. There is a huge difference in odds between applying ED and RD at Princeton. At the ED stage Princeton accepts well over 20% of applicants. RD is redicuously competitive (currently some 15,800 apps vying for 600 or so seats). And remember you can back off of a Princeton acceptance for financial aid reasons. But then again, they do agree to meet 100% need.</p>