Susan Tompor

Detroit Free Press Personal Finance Columnist

Some select a less expensive college -- or one with a scholarship offer -- to avoid too much debt.

Take a full-time workload of credits to try to graduate in four years, not five.

See if you can rent college text books or buy used ones.

Guideline: Every college dollar you borrow will cost about $2 by the time you pay off the debt.

Getting a college degree — and a job after graduating — is well worth juggling some college debt for many people. But you're guaranteed to end up with nothing but regrets if you've got debt but no degree.

About 45% of people who are no longer in college and have student loan debt said that college was not worth the cost, according to a survey from the Consumer Reports National Research Center. About 1,500 Americans responded to the national survey in March.

Consumer Reports partnered with the Center for Investigative Reporting to examine student loans and a social media campaign dubbed #mydebtcouldbuy is part of the discussion.

What's interesting is that those with second thoughts likely didn't finish school; the survey noted that about 38% of that group upset about their debt didn't graduate.

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Committing to finishing strong and obtaining a college degree, it appears, would lead to a much happier financial picture.

"We don't have a student debt problem, so much as a college completion problem," said Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of strategy for Cappex.com.

"Students who drop out of college are four times more likely to default on their student loans than students who graduate, representing 63% of the defaults."

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Why do some drop out? Money, maybe they didn't realize the full cost. Lack of academic or financial support. Conflicts at home or work.

Kantrowitz noted that the majority of dropouts at some schools take place during the first year or between the first and second years. It can help some students to seek out mentors and advisers earlier in the game; and budget before you borrow.

The six-digit horror stories involving student debt abound once again. The August cover of Consumer Reports is a bright, bold red with the headline: "I kind of ruined my life by going to college."

The quote is attributed to a 32-year-old woman from Portland, Ore., who has $152,000 in student debt.

The troubling thing about only reading such headlines — and the article does include some practical tips for managing college debt — is that one might think that all college debt is a bad idea. It's not.

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On average, college grads in the Class of 2016 have a record level of about $37,000 in student loan debt for those with a bachelor's degree. That's up about 6% from last year, according to Kantrowitz's calculations. About 71% of those graduating will do so with some student loans.

About 20% of the cost of college is covered by taking on college debt by parents and students, according to the "How America Pays for College 2016" report released by Sallie Mae this week. The survey indicated that 13% all college costs are covered with student debt; 7% with loans taken on by parents.

The top two sources of money: About 34% of the cost was covered by scholarships and grants and 29% was covered by parent income and savings.

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A key question, of course, has to be: How much is too much to borrow for college? Taking on $80,000 or $100,000 in college debt? How could most people imagine paying that off?

Sometimes, I think it's too easy for all of us to just view our spending or borrowing in very narrow windows.

We look at what we spent on lunch yesterday, instead of how much we will spend on lunch for the year. We look at what we borrowed for college last semester, instead of adding up the total over four years or five years.

What will loan payments cost in the future?

Take someone who ends up with $60,000 in student loans.

Assuming 6% interest and a 10-year term, the borrower would face a bill of $666 a month under standard repayment plans, according to Kantrowitz. That adds up to $79,934 in total payments in 10 years.

The monthly bill could drop to $387 if you opted for a 25-year extended, repayment plan. That adds up to $115,975 in payments over 25 years.

The monthly payment could fall by about another $100 a month if you had an income of $40,000 and opted for an income-based repayment plan offered with federal student loans. But payments go up when your income goes up.

About 5% graduate with a bachelor's degree end up with $60,000 or more in student loan debt based on 2011-12 data, Kantrowitz said. But that level of debt is more common among graduate students.

Whether you get into trouble paying your bills, of course, will depend much on how long it takes to find a job, how much you're paid out of school, how much credit card debt you took on while in college, and where you end up living.

Don't kid yourself into thinking you'll be making $80,000 or $100,000 the minute after you leave your graduation ceremony.

On average, the Class of 2015 bachelor’s degree graduates earned a starting salary of $50,219 — up 4.3% from their Class of 2014, based on a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

But remember that average is driven up by big salaries for engineering majors, computer science majors and mathematics and statistics degrees.

Before you borrow for college, research what kind of money you'd make the first year out of school.

A general guideline: Borrow less than that first year's salary.

Mark Schneider, president of CollegeMeasures.org, said at the current low interest rates it could take about 10% to 12% of a college graduate's gross income to make payments on college loans — if you borrowed an amount that's about equal to your first year's salary.

"It's not comfortable but it's manageable," he said.

Schneider, who is also a vice president and institute fellow for the American Institutes for Research, said college students need to consider things like a return on investment and think about their field of study and the expected salaries.

"If you borrow $25,000 for a job that pays $75,000, that's a great investment," Schneider said.

Schneider's work has been focused on building state-specific websites that provide pay information for college graduates from a given state. The idea is to help students identify in-demand jobs and potential careers in that state.

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Sites include: LaunchMyCareerTN.org and LaunchMyCareerColorado.org and MyFutureTx.com.

To establish such web state-specific websites, Schneider said it's necessary to get state agencies to agree to partner with CollegeMeasures.org to provide useful data.

Students can review salary information at sites like salary.com or payscale.com or the Bureau of Labor Statistics at bls.gov. Some research regarding pay for college graduates is also available at the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.

Not surprising to many parents who are working, perhaps, but 78% of the unhappy student loan borrowers say they earn less than $50,000 a year, according to the Consumer Reports survey.

If you're thinking about borrowing money for college, study what it's going to take to pay the bill.

Contact Susan Tompor: stompor@freepress.com or 313-222-8876. Follow her on Twitter @Tompor.