SCU doesn’t meet need AND is one of the worst in the country for meeting need, especially for middle class and working class students.
In short, it sounds like SCU is not affordable and they structured their offer in such a way that you’d have to say no financially speaking, but if you take on the debt, not their problem (also NYU’s strategy).
There are about 90 colleges that “meet need”. (I find the post below clear and informative)
For those, if you run the NPC, they typically provide financial aid to “meet” what their NPC determines you can afford (which may not be what you think you can afford but is better than the colleges that admit students and provide a lot of loans to attend.)
You can compare SCu’s NPC result with Pitzer’s and UCSC’s results, for instance. Pitzer “meets need”, SCU doesn’t, and UCSC is an instate public university.
Are there colleges that are affordable without parental loans among your child’s admissions?