You went to high school and your counselors said to get the top grades, fill out the FAFSA accurately, and if you are smart but needy, the colleges will bend over backward to get financial aid to you. You were lied to.
https://slate.com/business/2022/07/college-financial-aid-sham.html
We don’t suggest expensive out-of-state college for our readers, with some exceptions for finance or legal fields where the contacts made could get you a Wall Street job. For the rest of you, paying cash (or minimal loans) at the most affordable institution is recommended, assuming you are pursuing a major with gainful employment prospects.
For others, we don’t recommend college at all. Many fields do not require a degree, and it would be better to get work experience during a young adult’s 18-23 years than to accumulate vast amounts of debt. If you want to study humanities or social sciences, research them at libraries. Times are much different from the late 1990s, and we must adapt.
If you want to get into a field that needs the collegiate credentials, shop for college like a wise consumer. Do you need a top name college for the degree? Are you going to apply yourself? Or is it about the experience? We recommend state schools (in-state tuition), local colleges and community colleges. Rent is a major expense as many “college towns” are now seen as great remote-work cities (or have grown their own industries) and have big-city rents. Think of Austin, where housing has exploded in cost, or Boulder, or Charlottesville. Perhaps staying at a more convenient-to-home college, where you can live for free or cheap rent, will pay dividends for you as you avoid debt into your 30s and instead begin investing in real estate or stocks.
Here are some more resources:
https://www.howtomoney.com/is-college-for-dummies/