I’m not sure there is a boost for EA applicants at most places. The only benefit is at colleges where they accept the majority of their applicants in the EA round (e.g. University of Maryland). But a boost for admissions isn’t necessarily in the cards for EA applicants everywhere.
There is a boost at some schools for ED, but it sounds like you would like to compare multiple acceptances when the time comes, so ED wouldn’t be for you.
Full pay or not won’t matter at MIT, Princeton and Cal Tech as all three are need blind - they won’t factor it into their decision - so in this group and other top schools she’s wrong. Even a Tufts or Johns Hopkins are need blind - but a Wake Forest and Emory, they are need aware.
When you say you’d like to save money, are you being given the money or will your family strain? If you have a budget and MIT is $100K a year, and you won’t get need aid, why apply? But if you have no budget, then it makes sense.
But in the end, it’s your folks money - if they are saying - let’s roll the dice, then great - but I still say Cal Tech is so different - I don’t think you game for admissions unless you truly want that level of focus and independence vs. a traditional college.
Have you looked at Purdue ? Very strong in Physics/Astronomy and very inexpensive relative to others outside your top 3. I notice your other schools are in blue states but not sure if that’s an issue as Purdue is not. Rice would be a top school in these arenas with the chance of merit.
Best of luck.
Agree, Rice should be considered for sure. It is a top school that has been gaining even more recognition.
I shoulda graphed humidity too. I’ll take a hot summer day in Pasadena over a steamy, sticky, sweaty summer day in Cambridge/Princeton any day.
And then in the wintertime the ice weasels come.
What does this mean? It’s impossible to “optimize” your chances in this way, because the nuances around awards and EC’s is so variable. The colleges you think will love your EC’s have seen 1800 applications just like yours in the last few weeks- because EVERYONE thinks “Princeton loves musicians. I am a musician, therefore Princeton wants kids just like me”. Except maybe this year Princeton needs flutes and you play the violin; or you play the flute, but the last 50 flautist applications they read are from kids who have the same stats you have but their essays are hilarious and memorable and yours are just- well written. But not memorable.
That’s why this game playing is generally a waste of time. Figure out what YOU want, and let the adcom’s do their job.
Tufts isn’t need-blind despite all 3rd-party lists claiming it is. Their website doesn’t claim it is. That said, I think it factors very very little. Source: (1) (2) (3)
I don’t think it is a huge factor given their selectivity though..
Oops, my writing isn’t clear. The record-breaking pilot went to MIT, not my kids, unfortunately! That would be both of their dreams… One is applying next year but has .000!% chance (and is happily applying anyway, knowing this! 
The other is at another STEM school with a much higher admit rate but with some geeky-maker cultural overlap..
Admissions to any of Caltech, MIT, or Princeton is unlikely enough, even for an exceptionally strong student, that the ability to apply EA to other schools is likely to be important.
One thing that I like about EA to somewhat more “normally selective” schools is that getting an acceptance to a good university early in the process may make the entire process a bit less stressful, even if you end up going somewhere different. “Some peace of mind in December” is indeed valuable. There are also schools where applying EA makes both acceptance and getting merit aid more likely (of course the three schools featured in this thread don’t have merit).
You might want to read the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. As I understand it, it recommends that you do whatever is right for you, whatever you do you should do it well, and you should treat people well. Highly selective schools, including the three that we are discussing, accept students with a huge range of different ECs. The most obvious commonality among students at any of them is academically very strong students with a significant amount of success at whatever ECs they were doing. “Do whatever is right for you and do it very well” to me sounds like a pretty good summary of your original post.
If you apply to schools that are going to be a good fit for you, where you will be happy, that is likely to come across one way or another in your application and is likely to help your chances.
OSU is a very good university. It sounds like going there might let you save money for graduate school (which to me seems very possible given your intended major and stats and achievements up to now).
One thing that I might do if trying to decide between three highly ranked schools: Look at the list of classes that are required for graduation for whatever majors are likely. Consider both general requirements that are necessary for all undergraduate students, and major-specific requirements. You might find that some schools allow more of a focus on your major and some require a broader set of class work. Then decide what is right for you.
I don’t have an opinion on EA but if you’re in the PNW you might take a look at UBC in Canada. In the end you might not find it a value when compared to OSU in state, but it’s a very good school and the setting is quite a bit different if that matters to you.
Agreed, though they don’t need to be there in the summer (unless they choose to be:)
My son is a rising junior at Caltech and loves it there. He applied and was admitted REA. I have a couple of minor comments for you.
I can see if you attend a large high school, the tiny size can be off-putting. On the flip side, the size means that undergrads can potentially start having personal relationships with faculty from freshman year in a way I found truly startling (I am a Harvard grad). This leads to opportunities early on. On a social level, it also means that the Houses are tight-knit in a way your average college dorm is not. (If you end up not liking House-culture, this is more problematic, though.) Each House has an annual budget which allows them to plan events, including ski trips, camping, various beach trips, etc. during the year.
I personally love the Spanish Colonial Revival and Spanish Mission architecture and all of the citrus (my son has a lemon tree outside his window) and olive trees on campus. Also, when everything is blooming, in that particular Southern California way, it’s stunning there.
The worst heat is in the summer, and unless you’re doing a SURF (summer research), you won’t be there. All of the Houses have air-conditioning. My Midwestern son misses having four seasons more than anything else.
Have you had the opportunity to visit the three schools? It might clarify your preferences, if you can manage it. Applying to both MIT and UChicago early is possible, since they are both EA (Caltech unfortunately switched from EA to REA a couple years ago.) Good luck.
The four seasons thing is real! I live in Pasadena and moved here from the East Coast and it took me DECADES to adjust to the lack of seasons!
Since you see cons in both Caltech and MIT, I would go with Princeton… because MIT and Caltech are more fit schools than Princeton is.
Also, I imagine you can talk to profs at Princeton and perhaps do self-study in areas of interest. At the very least, you’d be able to delve into your passion(s) in your Senior Thesis. Word is that Princeton profs have time for their undergrads, moreso than at most every other university – it’s almost LAC-like in approach, putting undergrads first. (maybe similar to Dartmouth and Brown…)
Anyway, the overall point is, Princeton probably is able to cater to a wider range of kids and interests, while I think one would have to be 100% sold on MIT or Caltech to make that firehose water palatable.