@greeninohio: I don’t think the OP was talking about kids from families who are living off of wages and prudent savings plans, but the one particular family situation where it is possible to believe they are living off of dividends and not yearly earnings from work.
There used to be a profile listings of Questbridge-matched kids for any selected year that one could read. Two or three years ago I read a profile about a kid from a family with an outstanding family income (no kidding, I think it was like $200,00) who was matched. I do not remember a single thing about this kid’s background or family story, but I am sure it was compelling. There was also a story about a girl who did everything under the sun, from captain the golf or lacrosse team, to soup kitchen work on a regular basis, to tutoring and some other amazing things, all the while being at the top of her class and living in a English-as-second language household where the family income was about 34k a year.
The latter child was among the kids who have been in private school on scholarship their whole lives, who continue to be among a select group of students to progress up the chain of select educational institutions. How one defines privilege, and if there is a cut-off point for determining if the privilege-access-package has run its course is one thing that comes to mind when I read about kids whose families, true, are still just as poor as they have always been, but the student has had amazing life opportunities due to outreach and placement.
Glad to know your son took a chance and applied, as so many who are even slightly above the understood threshold, are dissuaded from seeking to match, though the website clearly says there is no definitive cap to family income for those families it serves.