<p>I heard about the grade deflation at Princeton and that would certainly be a huge turn-off. However, doesn’t Berkeley also have harsh curves for the class? I guess the difference here would be that even though the curves are harsh at both schools, it is much harder to score above the mean at Princeton than at Berkeley.</p>
<p>You said you come from a big family and that cost was an issue. I heard that HYPS schools give very generous grant aid packages to people in your situation where many kids attend college or the per-capita income was low. Was Princeton being unusually stingy?</p>
<p>Anyway, congrats on getting into both. I wish I will have similar hard choices to make!</p>