By the time Tobius Robles graduates from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, he will likely have more than $20,000 in student loan debt.
But that doesn't bother him. At 30 years old, returning to college after a 10-year hiatus and getting a degree is far more important to him than the cost of the classes.
"I'm taking out as much money as I possibly can," the business major said. "I'll take whatever they give me and more. By ‘they' I don't know who, the government, a little guy in a room with money behind him - I don't care."
Robles is not alone in relying on student loans to pay for the cost of a college education: With tuition costs rising, each year more students nationwide are graduating from college with loan debt and the amount of that debt is increasing faster than the rate of inflation.
A report released last month by the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington said the average student loan debt among those students who take out loans is at an all-time high, with last year's graduates collecting $17,600 in loans by the time they receive their diploma.
Economist Heather Boushey, who wrote the report, said there are two main reasons for the climbing debt: Rising tuition costs and easier access to loans.
In the past decade, Indiana's largest public universities have more than doubled their tuition rates. Indiana University jumped from $3,162 a year in the fall of 1995 to $6,769 this fall. Purdue University increased similarly from $3,056 a decade ago to $6,458 this year.
Tuition costs went up at the schools by about four times the rate of inflation for that period. Universities blamed the increases on rising costs in utilities, insurance and salaries and a decline in the percentage of the costs the state covers.
"College costs have gone up and policy-makers pushed loans on students instead of grant aid," she said. According to her report, scholarships and grants, which do not have to be paid back, made up about half of the financial aid given 10 years ago. Now, it makes up only about a third.
"Unfortunately, the reality is that it's about how we finance higher education, and until we do something to subsidize it more or provide more grant aid, students are going to be forced to take out more and more loans," she said.
The trend is hitting more than just the students from low- and middle-income families who have historically taken out loans to afford a college education. Upper-income families are also turning to loans to support college costs, said Mark Franke, associate vice chancellor for enrollment management at IPFW.
IPFW has seen the percentage of students graduating with debt rise from 51 percent five years ago to 60 percent last spring, he said. During that period, the average amount of debt those students collected rose from $14,120 to $17,057. If it had risen at the rate of inflation, it would be $15,957.
But, Franke pointed out, the rate of borrowing did not exceed the rate tuition increased. Tuition increased about 44 percent during that period, at least three times the rate of inflation.
"I'm watching this closely," Franke said. "I am worried about students who borrow too much, but I'm not anywhere near panic mode. I think our students are being cautious about getting into too much debt."
University officials are seeing more students who reach their limit in federal loans and turn to outside lenders to make ends meet, but it isn't something IPFW encourages, he said.
"We do not suggest to students that these options are available," Franke said. "We don't hide the information, but we don't try to push those loans so to speak."
When financial aid counselors find students who appear to be getting in over their heads in debt, they work with them to find alternatives, but there aren't many available. Franke said they suggest students borrow only what they need to pay for tuition and books or they work out payment plans to give students more time to pay their tuition.
Without taking on that debt, however, many students would never make it through college. And without a college degree, finding a career with a sufficient income and any kind of job security can be challenging.
"It is the case that college grads do much better than high school grads," Boushey said. "That gap has been increasing since the 1970s. Getting a college education is a good investment."
A U.S. Census Bureau report showed that in 1999, the lifetime average income for someone with a bachelor's degree would be $2.1 million, while a high school grad would earn only $1.2 million.
His mother paid for most of his education and took out loans herself, but by his fourth or fifth year, Hildenbrand said he had to take out loans of his own.
Now, at 25 and a year and a half since he received his degree in mechanical engineering, Hildenbrand works for Fort Wayne-based Ottenweller Co. and barely notices the $50 a month he pays on the loan.
The danger of the rising student loan debt, which doesn't include the thousands of dollars in credit card debt many students accumulate, is that students won't be able to pay the loans back, Boushey said.
"At the same time that (loans are) taking us longer to pay back, our wages have not increased commensurate with the value of the loans," she said.
The mountain of debt could force some people to make choices based on the amount they owe, such as which jobs to choose, when to get married or when to have children.
Robles said he'll deal with that after he graduates from IPFW in three years, but he's not concerned about paying back the money he borrows. He spent the past decade working dead-end jobs and knows without a degree he won't get far.
"I applied for jobs a couple of years ago," he said. "Nobody out there would hire anybody (without a degree). I want more of an administrative job, and there's no way you can do it without a degree. That degree leads you to something else."
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