Not sure where your info is coming from, but I know mine is accurate. If your cost of attendance is, say, 55k, and your estimated family contribution is, say, 20k, and you win a couple scholarships along with it, your estimated family contribution stays the same since the school still EXPECTS your family to afford the 20k. The scholarship has 0 impact on your ability to afford school, it just lowers the amount of the grant from the Ivy. Hence my comment about scholarships not really helping anyone but the super rich. And I am not sure what people consider middle class, but yes, most families who make around 60k will pay less for the child to attend an Ivy then they would for them to go to a state school. I won't go into the politics and economics behind admissions (I tried in other threads and most people call me a bleeding heart lib who is just jealous *sigh*), financial aid, and the recruiting, but I can say, with 100% confidence, that most kids who get into Ivy League schools are coming from wealthy, elite, well-connected families. The average, 4.0 33+ ACT student from a low income home has a lower chance of being accepted then his/her equal from a wealthy, well connected family. Trust me, its one of the reasons I stopped working in the Ivy League...
And the third-party comments come from Cabral's teammates, so yeahhhh.... You can respect someone as a competitor, does not mean they are not a douche bag.