Good point. I think you are correct. Some loans were from his freshman year and were included in his package and some were for summer and later years (after their policy switch) and were not in his package.
And it is very typical, for many colleges , for families not to agree with what the schools say they can afford.
I will say that it seems pretty easy to earn money during the school years, both via work study and non-work study jobs. A lot of students work as undergraduate TAs, which pay well, but of course work time needs to be balanced with time needed for academics, socializing, rest, etc.