While students may be especially fortunate to live in California, my understanding is few even in other states at the $75k family income level pay sticker price. Note also that median family income in the US is around 60k. For example, at UW, CollegeSimply reports the net price for a family income of $48,001 to $75,000 is $10,231: http://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/washington/university-...

Average student debt of those who borrow is in the 20s-30s of thousands at most schools. $75k of debt for an undergraduate degree would be an outlier anywhere. https://lendedu.com/blog/student-loan-debt-statistics-by-sch...