In addition, there are schools after May 1 which will be accepting applications, and some also have financial aid.
It will all work out somehow.
Your child can only borrow $5500 as a freshman, $6500 as a soph, $7500 as a jr, and $7500 as a senior. HE can’t borrow enough to bridge a $20k/year gap at expensive privates, nor should he.
If your family will pay $10k/year for him, and he has ~$5k Pell + $5500 student loan, that’s ~$20k/year. Are there any in state schools whose COA is in that range?
It appears that many of the NJ state universities (not Rutgers) should be affordable with your Pell Grant, $5500 student loan, your family’s contribution, and your son’s summer work earnings (and possibly part-time school-year earnings). If you are eligible for a NJ state grant, these universities will be even more affordable.
How many times did he take the SAT? There is a section here at CC for preparing for the tests. I don’t know if he worked really hard for his score but if you need money he should raise his score. That is if he takes a gap year to work.
Thank you all so much for your feedback.
I have good news to share, it looks like 3 NJ schools are coming through with more funding to make it more affordable 
Congrats, queeninmyhead. I hope it works out for you.
@kidzncatz He only applied to 1 in-state public.
@jerseyshoremom. What are you talking about? I don’t see any other posts from you on this thread.
Too late to edit my post…but it looks like three NJ schools are in the running for the OP’s son.
See post 24.