“In fact, the average student now finishes his or her college career with between $15,000 and $20,000 in loans,” says Walden, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialist. “The student loan market has exploded. It’s now $80 billion a year, and that’s doubled over the past 10 years.

“Now, three quarters of this debt is from either direct federal loans or federally backed loans, so the federal government has a big part of this,” he adds. “But the fastest-growing component of the student loan market is actually private loans.

“They were almost nonexistent 10 years ago. They now account for $15 billion of college debt,” he says. “But I should say that even with these loans -- even with these debts -- all the numbers show that college is still a worthwhile investment.”