How often do parental restrictions lead to having only too-expensive choices?

How often do parental restrictions lead to having only too-expensive choices? For example, in this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1867718-automatic-full-ride-w-my-stats.html some of the parental restrictions are: * No in-state publics (OP of the thread is a California resident, based on other threads by the OP). * Racial composition of students (OP of the thread was interested in an automatic full ride at a HB school, but parents vetoed it). So the OP of the thread is facing $100,000 in debt.