I've often wondered why it is that colleges have gotten away with raising tuition 7% to 10% per year for decades on end.

This post is, indeed, very honest about the reason: Your college degree is a badge of social class that every other college grad will look for. If you don't have one, many college grads will assume that you are shiftless and lazy and whining and self-pitying and that you potentially have a series of pregnant girlfriends.

Colleges are charging you -- are striving to put you deeply into debt for a decade or more -- for admission to a club. And, make no mistake, I do generally recommend that you join that club -- the advice here is correct; you should fight to get a degree from one school or another, because the perks are real. But let's not lose sight of the reason why college grads get ahead and folks like the inventive and hardworking techs in my old fab, or my military-veteran uncles with their high school educations, get sneered at. The reason is prejudice.

Incidentally, I for one am willing to take the OP at his (her?) word when he says he's having trouble getting an affordable loan, particularly given the recent turmoil in the credit markets:

http://www.thinkfinancial.com/blog/index.php/student-loans/s...