Financial Aid for Nursing school in Union County?? Yikes

So i am planning on taking my pre-reqs at Union County College this fall part time so I can apply to nursing school after I establish a decent GPA (my past college grades involved unrelated courses and i did very poorly ) I will probably apply to both Trinitas and Muhlenberg. I spoke with a co-worker who went to Muhlenberg through UCC and she mentioned that she got absolutley 0 financial Aid!!! She is at an age where she can claim herself as an independent, no kids, not living with parents, and makes roughly the same as me (possibly a little bit more, $30,000 annually or so) which is the same situation basically as me. It really made me worried that I seriously cannot afford to even bother with nursing school which breaks my heart.... I am also NOT looking to take out any loans and working with my job's tuition reimbursment plan.

Does anyone have an experiences with recieving financial aid with these schools, and if so did they give you any significant amount??? I was looking at the fees per credit and i almost fell out of my chair!!!!

I'd just like to get an idea of what i should be planning on spending out of my own pocket.