Money molded Laura Castro's first foray into college, but she's determined it won't dictate the second.

Castro, 20, decided two years ago to attend J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College as an economical way to rack up college credits.

Now she's ready to transfer to a four-year institution but faces a choice between her dream school -- the University of Virginia -- with possibly no financial assistance, or Randolph-Macon College's tuition-free offer.

"It's hard to say no but at the same time it's a conflict between my dream school and affordability," she said. "I'm kind of going back and forth."

For Castro and countless other college students, access to higher education hinges on money. Student loans, financial aid, generous parents, scholarships and part-time jobs are in the mix, and state lawmakers and education officials are cooking up new ingredients.

The State Council of Higher Education of Virginia says affordability is a high priority, and this year the General Assembly boosted an incentive program for colleges to limit their tuition-rate increases.

The Higher Education Tuition Moderation Incentive Fund, effective July 1 through June 30, 2010, gives public colleges and universities access to a pool of $17.5 million annually if they limit to no more than 3 percent the increases in tuition and certain mandatory fees for in-state undergraduate students.

Within the next six weeks, boards of visitors at state colleges and universities will begin to set tuition rates and can choose to participate in the fund.

In exploring the complexities involved in keeping college affordable, the State Council of Higher Education looked to a panel of students from state colleges to assist. A handful of those students who met yesterday to discuss the subject further illustrated how many factors play into each students' situation.

Jacqui Newman started at the University of Mary Washington with enough Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment credits from high school to finish college in 3½ years. This summer she'll move home and commute to her final senior seminar and gym courses, using the money she would have spent on a campus meal plan to pay for gas. She plans to graduate in December at age 20.

Newman's not the norm, however. Many students become "super seniors" and stretch out the time they take to finish college, and State Council of Higher Education officials are trying to understand those folks, too. They want to know what delays their graduation so they can better focus on ways to help.

"If you have the ability and want to go, are there barriers that keep you from doing that?" James M. Alessio, director for higher education restructuring at the state council, asked rhetorically.

He estimates that students will pay about $15,000 per year at a four-year institution when all factors are considered -- tuition, supplies, housing, meals, transportation and personal expenses.

Students can take longer to graduate for various reasons, such as taking fewer credits in a semester so they do better in those classes, having trouble getting into certain courses required for graduation, or going part-time or leaving school to work for a while, students and education officials say.

Investigating financial aid ahead of time can help, said Jung W. Kim, a math major at Virginia Commonwealth University. If encouraging freshmen to do so hasn't worked so far, school officials should try a different technique, he said.

"Beat it into them instead of just putting it on the table."

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or omeola@timesdispatch.com.