It’s getting harder and harder to graduate college without taking on student loans.

Nearly 70% of bachelor’s degree recipients leave school with debt, according to the White House, and that could have major consequences for the economy. Research indicates that the $1.2 trillion in student loan debt may be preventing Americans,from making the kinds of big purchases that drive economic growth, like house and cars, and reaching other milestones, such as having the ability to save for retirement or move out of mom and dad’s basement.

This student debt crisis has become so huge it’s even captured the attention of presidential candidates who are searching for ways to make college more affordable amid an environment of dwindling state funding for higher education and rising college costs. But meanwhile, the approximately 40 million Americans with student debt have to find ways to manage it.

How to repay your student loans with less pain

MarketWatch and the Center for Financial Literacy at Champlain College convened a panel of experts recently on the Champlain College campus in Burlington, Vermont, to discuss some of the ways borrowers can make sure they stay current on their student loans.

“Trillions capture our attention,” Eleanor Blayney, the consumer advocate for the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, said at the panel. “This is big and the way to manage that is really to understand what you have, plan and map it out over the course of your life.”

How much?

A few numbers to consider (and some that bear repeating):

The total outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. is $1.2 trillion, that’s the second-highest level of consumer debt behind only mortgages. Most of that is loans held by the federal government.

About 40 million Americans hold student loans and about 70% of bachelor’s degree recipients graduate with debt.

The class of 2015 graduated with $35,051 in student debt on average, according to Edvisors, a financial aid website, the most in history.

One in four student loan borrowers are either in delinquency or default on their student loans, according the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Over the past few decades a variety of factors coalesced to make student debt an almost-universal American experience. For one, state investment in higher education dwindled and colleges made up the difference by raising tuition. At the same time, financial aid hasn’t kept up with tuition growth. In the 1980s, the maximum Pell Grant — the money the federal money gives to low-income students to attend college — covered more than half the cost of a four-year public school, according to The Institute for College Access and Success, a think tank focused on college affordability. Now, it covers less than one-third the cost.

A college degree has also become more necessary than ever to compete in today’s workforce at the same time that Americans’ wages have remained stagnant. That means more students are going to school with less money to pay for it, resulting in an uptick in student debt.

The boom in for-profit college enrollment during the Great Recession has also served to boost aggregate levels of student debt and student loan defaults. For-profit colleges have come under scrutiny from lawmakers and consumer advocates who accuse them of using inflated job placement and graduation rates to lure students into enrolling and taking on loans.

A September study published by the Brookings Institution found that a large share of the growth in the number of students struggling to pay off their loans over the past several years is tied to students borrowing to go to for-profit schools and to a smaller extent two-year community college.

Other, factors likely also play a role in the growth of student debt. Many have blamed the uptick in college costs and therefore student debt on administrative bloat, the idea that colleges are spending more on nonacademic staff and facilities. In addition, many 17-year-olds likely don’t understand what owing tens of thousands of dollars in loans will mean after they graduate.

“What a lot of students don’t understand is that student debt is an investment in your future,” John Petellier, the head of the Center for Financial Literacy and one of the panelists, said in a separate interview. “A perfect example of what I think is missing at a lot of high schools is one of the key topics in financial literacy, understanding the connection between career and income.” A better sense of that relationship could help students make more informed decisions about whether a college or career path is worth the debt, he said.

Even though we’ve gotten to the point where a large share of Americans have a personal connection to student debt, the experience is felt differently by different people. For one, though it might seem counterintuitive, borrowers with smaller debts are actually more likely to struggle with their student loans than borrowers with large balances.

That’s because a small debt may be a sign that the borrower didn’t complete school or obtained a low-level degree that’s relatively meaningless in the job market. Borrowers with high levels of debt are more likely to have taken on loans to attend graduate school that will pay off in the labor market, allowing them to earn enough to pay off their loans. Just 3% of borrowers with a graduate degree defaulted on their student debts, according to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

Borrowers’ experience with debt also varies by race and gender. African-American borrowers are more likely to take on loans for college and tend to borrow more, largely because the historical gap in wealth between black and white households means that black students have fewer resources to draw to pay for school. And because women earn less than men on average, they have less money to draw from to pay back their student loans.

Stagnant wage growth also plays a role.

Student loans can also have different consequences depending on age. While the debts may prevent younger borrowers from buying a home, a car or reaching other economic milestones, older borrowers are at risk of losing their retirement benefits. About 36,000 Americans lost a portion of their Social Security check in 2013 due to an unpaid federal student loan, according to the Government Accountability Office.

But regardless of life stage, size of loan, level of degree and other factors, student debt is a factor often in the back of borrowers’ minds.

“It sticks with you every day,” Ian Foss, a policy liaison at Federal Student Aid, told the panel.

Check out these related stories:

How to manage your student loans while you’re still in school

How to manage your student loans after you graduate

How and when to consolidate your student loans