LONG BEACH, Calif. — Jesse Yeh uses the University of California, Berkeley library instead of buying textbooks. He scrounges for free food at campus events and occasionally skips meals.

He's stopped exercising and sleeps five to six hours per night so he can take 21 credits — a course load so heavy he had to get special permission from a dean.

The only thing he won't do: take out a student loan.

"I see a lot of my friends who took out student loans, then they graduated, and because of the economy right now they still couldn't find a job," said the third-year student, whose parents both lost their jobs in 2009. "The debt burden is really heavy on them."

Even as college prices and average student-loan debt rise, educators in some sectors of higher education report they're seeing plenty of students like Yeh. After watching debt cause widespread damage in their families and communities, the students are determined to avoid loans no matter what.

What's surprising is this: Educators aren't sure that's always such a good thing.

They say students who take extreme steps to avoid debt at all costs may get stuck with something much more financially damaging: They may not wind up with a college degree.

To pay for college and minimize borrowing, students are working longer hours at jobs and taking fewer credits. They're less likely to enroll full time. They're living at home. They're "trading down" to less selective institutions with lower prices, and heading first to cheaper community colleges with plans to transfer to four-year schools.

Proven risk factors

Those may sound like money-savers, but each is a well-documented risk factor that makes students less likely to graduate.

"There's been such attention on student debt being unmanageable that current students have internalized that," said Deborah Santiago, co-founder and vice president for policy research at the group Excelencia in Education, a nonprofit advocacy group.

In fact, she said, "if you can take out a little bit of loan you're more likely to complete. If you can go to a more selective institution that gives you more resources and support, you're more likely to complete."

To be sure, educators can't help but admire the determination of students like Yeh, and nobody blames students for being afraid amid a flurry of news about debt. A recent analysis estimated the average debt burden for 2010 college graduates who borrowed was over $25,000, up 5 percent from the year before.

But getting almost no notice in recent reports was another stat: New borrowing nearly flattened out last year, according to the College Board, and actually declined on a per-student basis after accounting for inflation. Private borrowing (generally more dangerous to students) has dropped from about $24 billion in 2007-2008 to about $8 billion last year.

A major factor is likely increased federal-grant aid. But another may be students making more sacrifices to avoid loans.

Borrowing has pluses

What's the upside of borrowing? Federal data analyzed by Santiago's group and The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in 2008 show roughly 86 percent of students who borrow for college are able to attend full time, compared with 70 percent of students who don't borrow.

That matters because roughly 60 percent of full-time students receive a bachelor's degree within eight years, compared with 25 percent of part-time students.

Other research, meanwhile, shows just a quarter of students who enroll in a community college hoping eventually to earn a four-year bachelor's degree succeed within nine years. That compares with half of students starting at nonselective four-year colleges and nearly three-quarters at selective schools.

The more selective school may have a higher price tag, and you may expect it will be harder. But even comparably qualified students are more likely to graduate from the more selective school, probably because such schools generally offer more financial aid and academic help.

Student-debt aversion is most pronounced among Hispanics and Asians, who borrow at lower rates than whites despite having higher financial need. And it appears to have the greatest consequences for Hispanics and blacks.

Fifty-one percent of blacks who had financial need but decided not to borrow had left school within three years without a degree, compared with 39 percent of those who borrowed, the study by Excelencia and IHEP found. For Hispanics, 41 percent of non-borrowers had left, compared with 32 percent who borrowed.

In Hispanic immigrant populations, "aversion to borrowing stems from a lack of a banking relationship of any sort," said Santiago. "They tend to live in a cash economy, and (have) a very stringent determination to live within your means."

For Hispanics, she says, the issue isn't new. But more broadly, a new generation is arriving on campus whose financial education was forged almost entirely during the financial crisis and the wretched economy of the last four years.

At California community colleges, students don't usually need to borrow to pay tuition. But the decision affects how much they work outside class, and that affects their path through college.

Isaac Romero, 22, a third-year student at Long Beach City College, works nearly 40 hours a week and goes to class from roughly 4 until 9:40 p.m. Two bus rides later he gets home, often around midnight. Weekends are for homework.

He hopes to transfer next year, earn a bachelor's degree then attend graduate school. He figures he'll eventually have to borrow but wants to keep his debt as low as possible. So he ignores the loan solicitations that flood his mailbox.

"Life would be a little more comfortable if I did take some loans," Romero admits. "I might have a car. I wouldn't have to take the bus for two hours."

But he remembers his late father agonizing over bills and several friends' cars have been repossessed.

"I just don't want to go through that," he said.