Interest is compounded while in school… you can pay on the interest while in to stay ahead of it getting out of hand.
If you can comfortably afford school, then that maybe the best bet. 4 years at 3k a semester can add up and the payments could get pretty wicked.
If you are kind of up in the air if you can afford it or not, you could take out a loan here or there to help ya out. Just keep in mind you have a 6 month grace period after you get out of school to start paying them back, pretty much 6 months to find a job or consolidate loans.
After all is said and done depending on how long you will pay off the loans they could end up being 3x more than what you took out in loans