If they are professional class, their incomes will make it so he doesn't qualify for financial aid. If they won't cosign loans, it puts said young person in a very tough situation.
Yes. That is the problem. The college financial aid principles in the United States
http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/highered/fa/Econo...
make an assumption that parents are the funding source of first resort for any young person pursuing an undergraduate degree at the usual age, and young people not supported by their own parents don't have enough creditworthiness to borrow their way through an elite undergraduate college.