I don't think a loan is the same thing. They certainly shouldn't take money from the working students who pay their own way to give loans though ---- unless they plan to repay those working students they took the money from.
I had loans too and paid them back. They steal my money so I play their game sometimes to try to get some back while we are fighting the battle against fascism. But the government should neither make nor guarantee the loans. What happens when people default? We the People bail them out. It's no different than the "Mexican Bailout." The banks want to make money by making inadvisable loans, hoping for a windfall, but when their "risk taking" proves wrong, they want bailed out by the government instead of taking their own lumps. Corporate welfare.
It's not socialism for us to take loans, but it is socialism for the government to make and guarantee them and them tax the people to cover the losses. And it jacks up the price of education by interfering in the free market and makes it inevitable that even more people will have to take loans to get an education.