Great article!
Don't say you can't afford anything, think about what you CAN afford!
Start with the first year.
It's not too late if it's junior year. Can your child work the next two summers and save most of it for school? That's probably $4000.
Can you save $100 a month over the next two years? $2400
Can they live at home with you continuing to cover their room and board? That's HUGE. If they can't live at home, could you give them $200 a month to help cover their food since they won't be eating at home? That's $2000 over 10 months.
Can your child work during the year while in college? 10 hours a week could bring in almost $400 a month - so $4000 over 10 months.
Already, with very little sacrifice on the part of you and your child, you are at over $12000 for that first year.
What is your tax load? We save roughly $2000 a year on our taxes because of educational expenses. So add that in for helping the next year.
I have two kids in college right now. Yes, it's challenging. However, if you stop thinking about what you can't afford and what you CAN do to cover it, it's doable with a lot less loans for your child than you think.
In our case, we lived on one income so my part time job enabled some college savings and going full time when they hit college enabled more out of pocket so we've avoided avoided loans that way. We also paid off our mortgage right before our oldest hit school (15 year mortgage) so it freed up that money to help pay as well. That said, we've spent less of that money than we thought just by what the kids have helped with through their jobs, scholarships, etc.
Freshman year, my brainiac older son got some local scholarships. He applied through school, DHs work, church, community organizations, etc. Sophmore year was tougher because his school didn't do merit aide. Junior and senior year he got departmental scholarships. My younger son was less of a brain in high school but still had good grades and was eligible for more help because we had two in college and he looked very needy, opening up more scholarship opportunities for him. He got money from his school, which he now continues to get by maintaining his GPA.
We talk regularly with both kids about money. They pay all their own pocket money expenses and books. We pay tuition/room/board with the understanding they have to get as much financial aide/scholarship as possible. Our older son had a paid internship so took on a little more of his own room/board expenses because his savings account was getting too healthy compared to ours! Both boys see ALL of the numbers each Fall, Winter Break and Spring Break when we sit down to pay the bills. We do it when they are home on vacation. I can tell you (and I always tell them) what we have given them to the penny. We don't make a big deal out of it, it just is our quarterly routine. The boys seem to appreciate it - they tell me many of their friends don't even seem to know what school costs. They're also very happy not to have loans - I think seeing the numbers helps them appreciate. It was very eye opening, especially to our oldest who started school before I went back to work full time, to see what percentage of our annual income was going to his school!
My point if you've made it this far, is that you can probably help your kids more than you think. Just encourage them to make careful choices and COMMUNICATE about all the ins and outs of where the money is coming from.
We flat out told our kids what dollar amount we could afford and that they would get NONE of it if they took out more than the subsidized federal loans. That plus any scholarships they earned told them the exact number they had to fall within.
I hope you enjoyed your campus visit 
