You can’t “take out loans for whatever [you] cannot afford”, you can have $5,500 in loans for your freshman year, that’s it.
That means you need to find colleges in the $20,000 range.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1678964-links-to-popular-threads-on-scholarships-and-lower-cost-colleges.html
Merit scholarships will depend on your ACT/SAT score. Rutgers will only give you “a little something” if your scores are in the top 10-20% of their applicant pool. So, start prepping… 