What gives Juilliard the right to examine your parents’ finances?

A young man who is funding himself through college has applied to the elite New York school’s post-graduate program.

He and his parents were shocked and outraged to receive a questionnaire demanding to know the value of their home and the mortgage paid on it; their total gross income for 2014 and the amount of tax paid on it; the name of their business.

This strikes them – and us – as an unpadonable intrusion. The young man has demonstrated that he is funding his college career.

If his father’s name was Sheikh Someone, or his sponsor was a criminal oligarch, we are sure he would not have been sent these forms. Why, as a US citizen, is he subject to Juilliard inquisition?

Have other readers experienced this level of examination? Is it common across US colleges?

What gives Juilliard the right….?