Not being able to afford 'the extras' at private- good reason not to apply?

You certainly don't need to worry about things like ski trips but as the children get older you do have to worry about the costs of trips relating to things like music, specialist subject specialisms and sport.

The very musical child is likely to be selected for trips to foreign places with huge cathedrals, famous orchestras, the very clever child is likely to want to go on a classics trip to Italy, esp if it's highly recommended, the classicist at A'Level is likely to be invited to attend a Greek summer school, the very sporty child is likely to be invited on a sports tour which is almost compulsory for the first 15 - these tend to be far flung and about £2 to £2.5k. Imagine how your son/daughter would feel if they were the one child who couldn't go.

Actually, I think you need to be able to fund about £7-£10,000 of trips if your child is to totally benefit from a private education and to make the sacrifice worth it if things are tight.

They may, of course, have bent the truth about both their financial circumstances and any/all other elements of their encounter with this school's selection process. There are any number of reasons why someone might do that.

I don't think you need to worry about ski trips.

Curriculum trips are high pressure in GCSE and sixth form years.

Also things like MFL magazines, examination and re-sit fees, and learning support lessons.

Boomting, i agree about the cost of unifirms however theres usually a thriving secondhand uniform shop within the school which all parents use. It would be silly not to and there's no shame in doing so.

As above - uniform can get very expensive as there's usually only one supplier and you can't just buy generic items like blazers and sew the badge on.

Then there's the school lunches - often compulsory and billed separately, the school trips that are (genuinely) necessary for academic reasons, the ingredients for cookery classes, and the extra-curricular activities like music lessons which their DD may have had at primary school.

In my experience lots of children don't go on school trips like ski trips for example as there are only so many places available. My dd never got a chance to go for this reason.
I donb't know what sort of private school your fried was thinking of but unless it's somewhere like Eton or Stowe, with possibly a high proportion of very well off parents, lots of parents really scrimp to send their children to private schools, especially high performing academic ones.

Depends on the level of extras.

I don't think ski trips are compulsory. However, sports kit, school uniform and after school activities can become very expensive. Money is finite, and perhaps these expenses just tipped the balance when they were working out their budget.

On the other hand maybe there is another reason that your friend doesn't feel comfortable revealing and she is trying to gloss over. I would just leave it.