With less federal aid, college students' dreams slip away.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

PHILADELPHIA _ Philadelphia teenager Yalitza Berrios was wowed by the campus of Neumann College _ then elated when the four-year school made a spot for her in its freshman class. That put Berrios a huge step closer to her dream _ being the first college graduate in her family.

But a formidable stumbling block soon tripped her up.

Money. Or, in Berrios' case, the lack of it.

Short $5,400 her freshman year _ even after government and institutional grants _ Berrios reluctantly took out student loans while precariously juggling school and jobs. Within a year, the effort proved overwhelming.

While low-income students have always struggled with college bills, financial and political forces are now making it harder than ever for them to get a college degree _ a key to higher-paying jobs.

To avoid soaring loan debt, they are working long hours, taking courses part time, and commuting to college rather than living on campus _ compromises that actually reduce their chances of earning that coveted degree.

Researchers argue that unless Congress renews its commitment to student grants based on need, the gap between graduates from wealthy and graduates from lower-income families will further widen, robbing the nation of educated workers vital to a knowledge-based economy.

Grant aid for lower-income students failed to keep pace with the rising cost of college in the 1990s, a time when Congress and President Bill Clinton focused on easing college costs for wealthier Americans.

As a result, lower-income students _ who now make up nearly half the college population _ must rely on ever-larger loan debt to get through school.

In 2000, students from families earning less than $30,000 graduated from public, four-year colleges with median debt of nearly $14,200 _ double what it had been in 1993.

Financially independent students who earned under $20,000 graduated with nearly $18,400 in loans _ a jump of nearly 150 percent.

Fear of such debt prods students such as Yalitza Berrios toward the compromises that endanger their college goals.

As a freshman at Neumann in Aston, Pa., Berrios worked 20 hours a week wiping campus cafeteria tables…