Loans are really the only way to go for most people, unless you have a lot of money or are attending a less-expensive state school and have enough to pay out of pocket. I'm HOPING the latter will be the case for me. But for my previous masters degree, I used all loans. I know a lot of people, particularly those who went to inexpensive schools for undergrad and/or had their parents pay for college are reluctant to take out loans. But, it's really the best investment you could make, unless you go for some subject masters or PhD which is unlikely to get you a decent job. In just 3 years after getting my last masters degree, I had "paid for it" in terms of increased post-graduation salary. Of course that does not take into account opportunity costs - the lost salary while in school - but had I stayed in the field a bit longer, those would have been "paid back" too. (I use quotes since I haven't actually paid back my loans, but had I used every penny of increased salary to pay them back, they'd be paid off.)
So, I'm comfortable with loans, although I am hoping to avoid them at this point since I already owe a lot. If you can avoid private loans, though, that's best (though quite hard to do if you're going to an expensive private school.) Right now I only owe Stafford loans. I had some private loans which I have paid off.
