"Taking out a short-term, high-interest payday loan was a last resort. It also was the only way Vincent Bryant could stay in college," Herald-Net reports. "Bryant, 38, a business student at Everett Community College, said he had to take out the loans, twice, in recent months. He is among thousands of students across the state scrambling to make ends meet because the financial aid they were counting on has been delayed this fall. Community colleges are slammed with record enrollments this fall, partly because the faltering economy has pushed idle workers back to school for retraining. 'I have never seen anything that comes close to this,' said Steve Epperson, financial aid director for Skagit Valley College where he has worked for the past 33 years."