Student Loans

I am not writing this to complain, or to accomplish much of anything, if nothing else it is to just get it off my mind. It helps me to write things down... and this is where I do that :)
We are super excited for Chris getting into his program, now I have gotten into the nitty gritty financial calculations and let me tell you the cost of professional school is scary! Then we add in higher rent in the area, and lower excess of loans available to us. Did you know that you can only get $39,000 a year in unsubsidized federal student loans a year for a professional program? The fact that I am even saying "only" that amount scares me. However the cost of the program is higher than that for the 2nd year. The first year it will help cover a little of our living expenses (I mean a very little). We have been getting by so far on my income plus student loans supplementing what I don't make, we need more than what will be left in his loans after he pays tuition, fees, books, and instruments. On top of that he is going to do a masters in education concurrently which will add about $15,000 to the total tuition costs (that is cut in half from what it would be because it is a dual degree).
We were really hoping to get on section 8 to help ease the budget, but we can't even get on a waiting list yet, I am not sure when they start accepting applications for assistance, it seems crazy that there is sooo much need out there. But when we are looking at a minimum of $1100 a month (we currently pay $615.00) to get into a house, a little help would be nice.
I guess we are going to have to jump into the scary world of private student loans, I was hoping to never have to do that, however I think it may be the only way to survive without being a burden on our family. The good news may be that the 3rd and 4th year the tuition decreases significantly and we may be able to pay off some of the private loans with the excess federal loans... since the first two years are going to be the hardest financially. I can tell you already we will miss the grants and scholarships he received at WSU!