Getting Ready to go to College? Start Planning for Debt

It's that time of year when high school seniors obsessively check their email, knowing that

any day now, they'll know for sure where they've been accepted to college and where they've been rejected, or worse yet, waitlisted.

But there's another part of the college ritual that should be grabbing the attention of those getting ready to go to college and their parents: the cost of student loans.

Students now finish college with an average of $25,000 in student loans; in fact, student loan debt now outpaces credit card debt and is projected to reach $1 trillion this year.

Some argue that the cost is worth it because those four years of expenses are far outweighed by the increase in life-time earnings that a college degree makes possible. But for how much longer will that hold true?

It's not just for-profit colleges that are getting students into debt they can't afford for jobs that either don't materialize or don't pay enough to allow them to pay back their loans.

In the current anemic recovery, college students across the country are facing a difficult job market, and many will face years of indebtedness that will impede their ability to save for a car, a house, or retirement.

To make matters worse, the interest rate on new student loans is set to double in July from 3.4 to 6.8 percent, if Congress doesn't act.

Some in Congress argue that extending the current rates will cost too much in an era of high deficits, but it seems difficult to make the case that keeping more students out of college because they can't afford will have any positive effect on American competitiveness or economic strength.

Each year thousands of college and graduate students from other countries come to U.S. colleges and universities because they know the value of an American education. Many have stayed and made impressive contributions to industry and academia.

So why are our own politicians hesitating to give students a break when they are were so quick to bail out Wall Street banks? Should we be asking students to pay nearly 8% interest on loans when mortgage rates and other loan rates are at historic lows?

Today college students delivered 130,000 letters to Congress asking their representatives to reconsider this rate hike. Parents, grandparents, and all of us who have taken out loans to fund our own college educations, should join them in petitioning Congress to make college more affordable and not put up more economic barriers to education.

So if you're still waiting for that acceptance letter, take a few minutes out to send your representative an email, and if you haven't yet registered to vote, do that too.

We shouldn't bail out Wall Street and then default on the future of our kids.