This kid’s problem isn’t that his family income has suddenly plummeted, it is that the income has suddenly recovered. If it hadn’t, he would be eligible for more need-based aid. The problem, to be blunt, is that HIS performance and stats aren’t good enough to get into a private school of the caliber that would give that kind of FA or win him a mega-scholarship at a sufficiently prestigious school, and his parents are unwilling or unable–but most likely unwilling, because if their income is that high they could endure another 4 years of penny-pinching–to pay his way into a less selective private school that would salve his pride. And, of course, to be fair, they may have younger children coming along that they have to try to save something for.
He wasn’t going to get into Duke as an unhooked student with his stats anyway. What gave him the idea that he would? Rather than having a hissy fit that his parents can’t pay for Duke, he should be looking for schools that he can get into in the first place. (Actually, they should just let him apply and be rejected: problem solved.) I gather than no one is willing to tell him that HE didn’t achieve enough to get into Duke, quit whining and look for something realistic.
i can’t help but contrast him to my own S. We suffered financial reversal that took us from comfortable to qualifying for food stamps and fuel assistance, and hung onto our house only because we had savings and did not have a habit of extravagance when we did have a good income: no lawn service, no cleaning ladies, no cable, no mani-pedis, no fancy cars, camping vacations were the norm, and so forth. We sheltered him from our fears as much as we could, he had violin lessons while I didn’t go to the dentist, but he obviously had some idea of what was going on and never asked for anything. Unlike this kid, he did achieve enough to get into schools that would meet full need. We never were able to give him money, but we never heard a word of complaint from him about not having as much money as a lot of his friends.
Perhaps more to the point, I never lost sight of the fact that we were enormously lucky to have upper middle class families behind us, with all of the advantages that entails. Maybe S didn’t have the $$ for fancy sneakers or SAT prep and we didn’t belong to a country club, but he had a family that read, that took him to museums and concerts, that found a way for him to learn a foreign language and took him to foreign countries, even though we stayed in youth hostels rather than fancy hotels.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the less sympathy I have for him AND his parents. I’m probably just being cranky.