He wanted to continue his college education at in the Information Systems program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, but did not want to pay to live on campus or make the drive to Catonsville each day while holding down the job that he needs to pay his tuition.

Razdan found the Universities at Shady Grove, which comprises seven state universities that grant 25 degrees, including one from UMBC's Information Systems program.

Higher education officials see Razdan's two years at a community college followed by two years at a four-year institution as a more affordable path to higher education. But they stress that the state must support the need for more seats in community colleges and four-year programs and must provide more scholarship opportunities for transfer students in order to make college more affordable.

In the past two years, decreasing state money for higher education has forced tuition skyward while Maryland high schools are graduating more students hungry for a college education than ever before.

William E. Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland, has called it a "perfect storm."

Earlier this month, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education gave Maryland an A- in preparing students for college, but an F in college affordability.

At a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Clayton D. Mote Jr., president of the University of Maryland, College Park, said community colleges are an affordable alternative to four years at a state university, especially for lower-income students.

"We have to think of a number of creative mechanisms that will allow kids of low- and middle-income families to have a top-class education they can afford," he said at the forum sponsored by Atlantic Monthly magazine.

Mote pointed out that any student who graduates from a Maryland community college with an associate's degree is automatically granted admission to College Park.

"There will be seats available," Gene W. Counihan, chairman of the Board of Trustees at Montgomery College, said Thursday. "Now, we weren't saying that a few years ago."

"There is a seat," agreed Stewart L. Edelstein, executive director of the Universities at Shady Grove. "The question is, where will the seat be and what program will the seat be in?"

For example, College Park's prestigious Smith School of Business, whose courses are also offered at Shady Grove, is full.

Nor are community colleges immune to space concerns Montgomery College had more than 900 students who could not register for courses this fall. Many students were shut out of science courses because the college lacks laboratory space.

The college estimates that in the next 10 years it will need to build the equivalent of another Germantown campus to meet the demand for higher education in the county.

The college serves more than 35,000 full- and part-time students at three main campuses. Average tuition for a full-time student is $3,500 vs. $7,410 at College Park.

Community colleges receive 22 percent per student of the state aid the University System receives. If the state universities do not get the money they need, community college tuition is forced up, something that will not change without public investment, college officials said.

"It is a question of the citizens of the state of Maryland understanding what the issues are that they face [and whether they have] the political will to address the education needs over the next decade or two," Edelstein said. "Because you're building here for many, many years to come."

With continuing development and the state's growing economy, which relies on an educated work force, the state must invest in its future, he said.

"It's an investment that you need at the community college level where more students are apt to want to go and it's an investment you need at the higher education and the university level as well," Edelstein said.

About 20 percent of students at College Park come from families with annual incomes less than $25,000, Mote said.

That compares to Montgomery College, where about 26 percent of the students who use their own income to apply for financial aid have earn less than $20,000 a year. Of the students who use their parents' income when applying for financial aid, 25 percent had annual incomes of less than $25,000.

Students like Razdan, who works 20 hours a week and lives with his parents in Olney, is among the more than 50 percent of the students at the Universities at Shady Grove who receive financial aid.

As a transfer student, Razdan found only one scholarship for which he could apply. Instead, he turned to a federal Stafford loan.

"Four-year schools tend to spend the bulk of their scholarship money on their freshmen class," said Melissa F. Gregory, director of student financial aid at Montgomery College. "For transfer students the opportunity for scholarships are very, very limited."

That is something college officials around the state are seeking to change by creating more privately and publicly supported scholarships for third-year students.

Montgomery College President Charlene R. Nunley, who sits on the state planning committee for higher education, worries that reports about the high cost of college could have the effect of discouraging lower-income families from even applying for financial aid.

"My worry is all the publicity that the high cost is getting is leading parents and students to worry that college is more expensive than it actually is," she said. "It's more likely with lower-income students whose parents haven't gone to college and aren't familiar with the higher education system and the kind of financial aid available."

In the coming weeks, two state task forces are expected to recommend that the state increase scholarships for transfer students and increase need-based financial aid, something Maryland "has not been very good on," Nunley said.

Razdan said he wishes there were more scholarship opportunities.

"A loan is great, but you have to pay it back," he said. "Whereas a scholarship recognizes that you do understand the importance of an education and the school is saying, 'Hey, come on down. We want you here.'"

Christina Cepero of Capital News Service reported from Washington.