@albert69 , What you wrote that I read "The horror! " in response to “he did not do the recommended safety/match/reach strategy.” That is a useless post. And you have several other useless posts also, like slamming someone who thinks NU is a better school than Alabama. I have news for you – it IS better. Most Bama students are watching football games when they aren’t drinking or hazing each other.
Look, the parents BLEW it, and the kid got stuck at U Alabama as a result. I know a kid who had five full tuition offers from better schools than Alabama, and he was white. But he took the offer that had full tuition, full room and board, and a $5k a year stipend. And it is also better than Bama. He applied to TWO Ivys (not eight), and turned them down after the aid wasn’t great. Could he have gotten into all of them – hard to say? But he left himself lots of other options, not ONE.
And I said earlier that I was surprised he didn’t get full rides from a couple of the other schools on his list that were ALSO BETTER THAN ALABAMA. I suspect it was because he applied too late, because he was too worried about his Ivy applications.
Regarding the armchair quarterbacking, you couldn’t be further from the truth. I have a kid going through the same thing at this moment. I started with a list of all the need-blind, full need schools, knowing we would need financial aid. I have run at least 100 Net Price calculators for 40 different schools for three income/"# kids in school" scenarios. And I threw out a number of schools because my in-state public honors program is as good and cheaper, or because their typical loan was so high it would be too expensive, even meeting full need. For as much money as college costs, not doing research before the application process is irresponsible and I stand by that.