“Maybe they think their kid will go to X College where it’s free for parents making less than 75K or whatever”
That’s where I thought the parents’ thinking was going. If there are two wage earners each making $50K, and one quits a couple of years before the kid applies to colleges, the new income of $50K could qualify for a free ride. Now let’s say the worker gets 40K after tax, if you could get in to the X college, you pay nothing according these colleges and save up to 75K. Now a family making $100K will still get a decent amount of FA, but you don’t get the disadvantaged hook in admissions. Lot of moving parts.