I know that you and your husband didn’t have to consider costs at all when your only child was considering college. That is not the case with many, if not most, families.
This student’s family income is an amount that wouldn’t get need-based aid at probably 95%+ of schools. And it’s also an income where it can be hard to suddenly come up with $70k per year for college (if there aren’t already college savings accounts). There may also be other children to put thru school.
The OP hasn’t been back to College Confidential in about a month. If he comes back, I hope he’s spoken to his parents and have asked how much they can contribute each year towards this student’s college costs.