College is becoming synonymous with debt. Rising costs of tuition have made it necessary for the average student to take out a copious amount of loans that they may not completely understand.

It’s become more common for students to attend college after high school, which is without a doubt a good thing. However, the total federal student debt in the U.S. is around $1.5 trillion. That number is constantly increasing. 

Affording college tuition is a central cause of anxiety in students, even those who haven’t started attending. Rather than attending a school of their genuine best interest, students tend to pick cheaper options.

This is exactly the case for senior Mary Merid. She’s narrowed her choices down to CU Boulder, CSU, and University of San Diego. However, she won’t attend USD if she doesn’t receive enough help with payments. 

“It’s really hard to grasp this idea for me and it’s troubled me for some time now,” said Merid. “I just can’t afford $200K to go to school.”

One of the many difficult parts other than actually making these payments, is understanding what you actually have to pay after getting accepted into college. 

This can be especially difficult for first generation students. Without the background knowledge of someone who’d been to college, it can feel like you have to make sense of things by yourself.

But you don’t. In every school, there are people available to help you. Nevertheless, these numbers should be made clear and easy to understand. Navigating through payments should not be a primary concern. Counselors are always here for you. Heidi McClure, counselor at Eaglecrest is more than happy to assist students with college questions, just like every staff member. Her main advice is to “exhaust the resources that you have easy access to,” meaning everything available at school. 

It’s important to understand how many resources are available to students at Eaglecrest. Nobody has to decipher complicated forms by themselves. Staff members like Sean Hiland are always available to give help. 

Hiland believes  that one of the things that we as a society could do to better prepare students is by having these conversations much earlier. “For some reason in society there’s a lack of that conversation,” Hiland said. One of the reasons this may be is because we’re scared of 

“I do believe that some debt is not a bad thing, you have to invest in yourself,” said Hiland, “but there’s a fine line between investing yourself and burying yourself so deep that it’s affected the rest of your life.” 

In other words, don’t be afraid to ask questions.