Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't need to go to university to study. In fact, if you're actually motivated to learn, it's almost as likely to get in the way. There are certainly some potentially good reasons for going to university, but if you don't have your goals firmly aligned with such reasons, you'll just waste your time and money. So--what are your goals? And how do loans and a BS degree program get you to them?
My goals? To eventually get into more AI / statistics / datamining (currently I do primarily UI development) / graph analysis. I've tried to teach myself the math involved, but I've come to the conclusion that to really learn it I'll need courses in it. It's mainly the math, I think, that I'll have "trouble" (actually have to study) with - not the programming. Without loans, I'd have to work full time to support myse…
Have you considered finding a study partner for learning the math? Or a tutor--if you live near a university, you could probably find a math major that could use some spare cash.
I'd really like to be working on how to analyze how people connect and predict trends based upon it.
Working where? At an existing company? There's not too many options there, so you'd want to plan toward landing a relevant job (whatever that might take--and a degree alone isn't worth all that much; professional networking is). At a start-up? In that case, debt is probably the last thing you want.