How much need based aid requirements hurts in college admission for a top ORM student?

Last year one of her friend who is ORM and very high math achiever has hard time as he was wait listed many great places. Kid has high need bases need, yes prep school got him into one great place in CS but it has made us aware that despite high scores nothing can be taken for granted.

If you look my other thread I am not talking about YOU but CS schools that are great for CS