You can’t just ‘take on debt’. You can take 5.5k for freshman year. That’s it.
You can, however, prep really hard to get as high a test score as poqsible (act or Sat, often single sitting) as, combined with z good GPA, this will lead to full’rides. Obviously you can’t be too picky as to where you’ll end up if you choose that route and you don’t want to antagonize your parents because you’ll need them to fill out fafsa (unless you find a college that awards merit aid without parents filling out fafsa- not immediately obvious.)