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Emily Hittner received her Northwestern acceptance the classic way.

It was one of the top schools on her list, and one of the last she had yet to hear from. She hadn’t been checking her acceptance status online, and reached into her mailbox one day to find a large, smooth Northwestern envelope.

“I was so excited,” the Smithtown, NY high school senior said. “I was not really sure if I was going to get into Northwestern.”

She immediately began calling her friends and parents to share the excitement.

While this letter was good news, it didn’t mean that Hittner, who is interested in biology or chemistry, could make her final decision. She still had to wait for another letter — the one with her financial aid offer.

“My parents reminded me I couldn’t go [to Northwestern] unless I got a good financial aid package, which kind of brought down the moment a little bit,” she said.

Hittner has plenty of options. She applied to a total of 12 schools and got into the State Universities of New York at Binghamton and Buffalo, Pennsylvania State University, University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University, Boston University, University of North Carolina, University of Virgina, University of Chicago, and Northwestern. She was waitlisted at Duke and rejected from Johns Hopkins.

While Hittner said Northwestern is her top pick because of its strength in both science and music programs, the financial aid package she recently received is making the decision a difficult one. Her aid award was lower than offers from other schools. There is a gap between how much Northwestern will foot the bill, and how much she can afford, whereas the University of Buffalo, for example, offered her a full ride.

“Financially, Buffalo would be the best choice for me,” Hittner said. Attending Northwestern means taking out private loans, and paying them back herself. “Northwestern has a stronger science program, so I guess I have to weigh the benefits,” she said. Hittner would like to attend medical school, and leaving college with fewer loans would make medical school easier to finance.

Depending on her decision, Hittner said she might be “upset initially, but I’ll move on.” She said she would be happy wherever she ends up.

“Once I go to college, I’m not still going to be crying about it,” she said.