A friend let her daughter take out $50k in loans, cashed in some of her own 401k and borrowed against the 401k, and took some Parent Plus loans. The original plan was for half of that, but as the years went on and scholarships were lost, they felt they had no choice but to keep borrowing.
People always say that the undergrad can only take $30k in direct loans, but that’s not true. There were Perkins loans, there are extra amounts that the student can take if the parent is denied Plus loans (that happened here), there are loans from the school. This was a typical student and she got to $50k in just 4 years. There are students who go more than 4 years and just keep borrowing.