@thumper1 wrote “Well…some of those top 50 schools have very generous need based aid awarding policies…that could bring the cost of attending down to what a UC would cost.”
To which I would add that some of those - outside the IVYs and a few others - also have generous merit aid as well.
As a result, many of the students who are fortunate enough to be accepted to both top privates and public flagships find top privates to be less, or even significantly less, expensive than instate public flagships.