Consider the cost and benefit of each option.

If you continue to put the money in retirement accounts, you get the employer match, and the long term value of the compound interest, which is pretty high considering how many years it'll be there. You can calculate both of these values (use a retirement calculator for the latter).

The cost of this option is how much interest you'll need to pay on student loans for the tuition money that you would have had if you hadn't put that money into retirement savings. You can calculate this value as well.

Now you can compare the dollar cost of each option, and weigh how much you care about the long term benefit of a few extra thousand dollars vs the loans you'll have to take. You can also weigh how much loan you'll need to take either way.

Without any of those numbers, I'd lean towards saving the cash and not putting so much in retirement. You can wait a couple years to save there and spend the money investing in yourself up front. The few extra thousand in retirement will not make a big difference in the long run.

Also, good luck with software engineering, it's worked out quite well for me.