"I didn't know what I was doing when I was taking the loans out, I only did it because they accepted me and I needed to pay for college somehow," Lindsey Hrichak, of Blandon, said.

"I had to take out both federal and private loans to cover my schooling. The total amount, undergrad only, was about $35,000," she said.

Now in graduate school and set to graduate with a master's degree in biology in 2015, Hrichak has been taking out $3,000 worth of federal loans each year to cover the cost of education. These loans will add an approximate $22,000 to her already existing loan total.

"I know that it adds so much more debt to go to grad school, but my mentality is basically that I feel as though I will never pay these loans off regardless of whether it's $35,000 or $70,000, so why not add more," she said.

Hrichak is one of 2,065,000 student loan borrowers in Pennsylvania. She is a contributor to a reported statewide student debt total of $50,476,342 and a nationwide total of $1.1 trillion.

Big investment

According to "Taking Action: Higher Education and Student Debt," a report released in June by the Domestic Policy Council and the Council of Economic Advisers, student loan debt is now second only to mortgages among all categories of household debt.

"A postsecondary education is the single most important investment that Americans can make in their futures," according to the report, but financing college through loans leave people like Hrichak deeply in debt.

Phyllis Korkki reported in a May 24, New York Times article, the growing amount of student loan debt is negatively impacting the economy. Due to the high monthly payments, students and graduates are lacking the ability to start businesses, buy homes and take public-interest jobs.

"Three-fourths of the fall in household formation can be directly correlated to student debt," wrote Dan Kadlec in a Time magazine article. High student debt levels are a threat to the real estate market, "acting as a drag on both household formation and higher prices," he explained.

Big debt

As a result of the high cost of education, a Bethlehem resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, is unable to even consider purchasing his own home. The majority of his debt was accumulated during graduate school having finished the program in 2013.

"I was torn between medical school and physical therapy school, and I made the decision to go to physical therapy school," he explained. "It's three years of nonstop school during summers and everything, 120 credits.

"I didn't have any debt from undergraduate school, but in terms of grad school, the amount of debt I incurred through the three years was over $83,000 even with scholarships."

Unlike the physical therapist torn between two possible careers, Kyle of Bethlehem, who also prefers to remain anonymous, said he wanted to become a meteorologist since he was a child.

"When looking at schools and trying to decide which one to attend, it pretty much came down to either State University of New York Oswego or Penn State," he said. "I ultimately chose Oswego because Penn State was going to be more expensive than going out of state.

"To cover the cost of my undergraduate education, I relied mainly on loans, scholarships, a job on campus and a little help from my parents. I was able to get a housing scholarship, which paid for my dorm all four years. This helped tremendously. I also received the dean scholarship. However, I had to take out a decent amount of student loans."

Since graduating from SUNY Oswego in 2013, Kyle was accepted into Texas A&M's master's program in atmospheric science with a full ride and a stipend for living expenses. He said this achievement made the $30,000 worth of undergraduate loans worthwhile.

Issue not new

The struggle with student loan debt is not new. Carole Gorney, of Bethlehem, high school graduating class of 1966, said she, too, struggled with student loan debt while in graduate school.

After completing nearly half of her graduate studies, she was told because of her outstanding loans with Northwestern University from her undergraduate education, she would no longer be able to continue in her program.

She spoke to the dean of the college and was able to procure a job in the library and an internship in order to stay in school. Despite these jobs, she still graduated with $18,000 worth of debt.

Second career debt

As student loan debt is not just for the 20 year-olds, another growing example is adults returning to school. Ginny Goodwin, of Macungie, said she felt a calling to become a pastor and knew to do so, she needed a bachelor's degree.

"I started college when I graduated high school and Kennedy was president," she said. "I had three semesters at school and worked and then I got married and had children. My children grew up, my life circumstances changed and I went back to school to get my college degree and continued to graduate school where I encountered student loans."

Despite the company she worked for paying 90 percent of her undergraduate tuition, she will be paying off her 15-year loan plan until she is 75 years old.

Over the past 30 years, the average tuition at a public four-year college has more than tripled while a typical family's income has remained about the same, the June report said.

The numbers

Currently, 71 percent of students graduating with a bachelor's degree graduate with debt. The average amount of debt per student totals $29,400. The national student loan debt balance stands at $1.1 trillion as of early 2014, up from $250 billion in 2003, according to the June report.

Because higher education leads to better employment prospects and an average earnings of $28,300 more per year than those who have only a high school degree, more students are enrolling in college.

Adding to the problem, many public institutions of higher education are facing declines in state appropriations, the report said. Higher education funding remains well below pre-recession levels in almost all states; 37 states have cut public college funding per student more than 20 percent since the recession, nine states have cut such funding per student by more than 30 percent and three states have cut funding per student more than 40 percent.

"Don't get yourself tied up into it if you don't have to," Goodwin warned. "Go to community colleges, try to commute, then go for your four year degree at your chosen school."

NEXT WEEK: The high cost of a college education.