Income as a number doesn't have much meaning until Cost of living is taken into account.
Every university like this uses a sliding scale.
In this case, their scale slides to the point that under $200K family income you pay nothing for tuition.
Under $100K they'll even cover food and housing.
But I’ve also never met or heard of a $200k household that I wouldn’t consider “well off”. Typically, stories about these “not well off” yet “over double the median income” households are budgeting issues.
People don’t like to admit that because most people blame external forces instead of evaluating their own choices.
This is explicitly mentioned on the FAFSA's web site: https://studentaid.gov/help/reporting-special-financial-circ...
Basically, budgeting issues for the body.
Getting a mortgage that is 40% of your income is fairly irresponsible (I’m sure it does happen though). You also didn’t count property tax which is probably like $20k
It's very doable with money left over
A family making $200k in California takes home about $130k, so call it about 10% of their net income over the child's lifetime. That's some pretty significant budgeting!