As of early 2014, the amount of student loan debt in the United States reached $1.1 trillion. Students earning a bachelor's degree graduate with an average debt of $29,400, according to a June report released by the Domestic Policy Council and the Council of Economic Advisers.

"To see what can happen when a student debt problem goes unaddressed, one only has to look to the United States, where the situation has reached crisis levels," wrote Gary Mason in a Sept. 6, 2013, article in The Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper. "The amount of outstanding student debt there has topped $1 trillion. That amount, and the delinquencies, are escalating at frightening rates."

Although most graduates manage to pay back their college loans on time, others are not as successful.

"The typical repayment period of a student loan occurs during the earliest years, despite the fact that the benefits accrue later," the June report explained. The Department of Education found 10 percent of borrowers beginning repayment in 2012 defaulted on their loans within two years. In 2003, only 5 percent of borrowers entering repayment defaulted.

Damaging defaults

According to the report, defaulting on student loans can lead to a damaged credit rating, tax refund offset or garnished wages. Credit ratings have a large impact on the ability to purchase a home or a car, open a bank account and even acquire a job. Making high monthly college loan payments can also influence repayment of other debts.

"When students use up their debt capacity on student loans, they can't commit it elsewhere," wrote Phyllis Korkki in a May 24 New York Times article. Student debt has caused a decline in homeownership trends, particularly among 30-year-olds, Korkki pointed out.

In addition to having an impact on graduates' lives and the economy, defaulting on student loans impacts schools, Dr. Daad A. Rizk, financial literacy coordinator at Penn State University said.

"The U.S. Department of Education calculates a cohort default rate for each college on which the department bases its authorization for student financial aid," she explained. "If the default rate is high, the school risks losing its financial aid authorization from the U.S. Department of Education."

Penn State's cohort default rate falls below the national average. According to Rizk, the combination of strong majors and robust degrees allows graduates to secure well-paying jobs, which help them avoid default.

Too much debt

Although many graduates are able to successfully avoid defaulting on their loans, they are often impacted in other aspects of their life. A Bethlehem resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, finds himself in the position of being unable to even consider purchasing a home due to his $83,000 student debt sum. He said he would not be able to manage both his student loans and a mortgage, nor does he believe he would be approved for a mortgage due to the outstanding balance.

Even with a car already paid off and a 25-year fixed repayment plan, he said he has been unable to take vacations or make any big purchases. He also finds himself worried looking forward, concerned he will be unable to provide his future children with the lifestyle he experienced when growing up.

No refinancing

Housing affordability was also a concern of Ginny Goodwin of Macungie, who graduated in 2004 after going back to school late in her life to become a pastor. Because of her student debt, she was prohibited from refinancing her house.

"I couldn't do it because I had loans," she said. "What I lost in trying to refinance cost me more than the student loans. I would have saved $50,000."

According to a July 22 article by David Wheeler in The Atlantic, it is becoming more common for seminary school graduates to finish school with lots of debt and no way to repay it. Churches are cutting back on spending, causing these graduates to take on secular jobs in order to afford the loans they took out for a job they cannot find.

Although Goodwin was able to find a job, with her 15-year repayment plan, she will not be finished paying off her loans until she is 75 years old.

Difficult payments

On track to graduate in 2015, Lindsey Hrichak, of Blandon, admitted she feels as if she will never be able to pay her loans back.

"My life was fine until my deferments ended," Hrichak said. "I found myself stuck with payments I couldn't afford, and didn't have a 'real' job yet." Although she has since obtained a job, the balances have barely decreased, or even increased, due to the amount of interest she has accrued. Last year, she paid $7,000 in interest alone.

"I called SallieMae, who I have the highest balance with, and got them to decrease me to an interest-only payment for two years. That was all they could do for me. I have five separate loans with SallieMae because I got a new one for each year. Each loan has a different interest rate, ranging from 5 percent to 9 percent. That's where all my money goes," she said.

Although she consolidated the federal loans she took out for undergraduate school and intends to do the same with the federal loans borrowed for graduate school, her private loans are not applicable for government-based repayment plans.

"Even worse," she said, "when I applied for income-based repayment for my federal loans, I was denied because they said I made too much money. This is because they look at my income alone, not the thousands of dollars I am putting into paying these loans back. At minimum, I pay $800 a month for all my loans, undergrad only."

The only option she sees to temporarily take care of her private loans is to borrow $35,000 from a bank. Because a co-signer would be needed to borrow the money and would therefore be responsible for the loan if anything were to happen, Hrichak does not feel it is a choice she can make.

Early poverty

When Carole Gorney graduated in 1966, she took on a 10-year repayment plan. Although she was able to make the payments on time, she said each payment amounted to half of her salary and she lived the first 10 years of her life out of school in poverty. Her incentive to pay the loans back came from reading about other students defaulting on their loans, and she took pride in knowing she was not one of them.

New measures

Currently, the Obama administration is taking measures to attempt to lessen the debt burden on borrowers and make college more affordable. According to the June report, these efforts have included raising the maximum Pell Grant award, creating the $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit and Pay As You Earn plan, as well as increasing transparency.

"The Federal Pell Grant Program provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduate students to promote access to postsecondary education," explains the U.S. Department of Education website. The grant, which does not have to be repaid, has been raised to a maximum of $5,550. The administration has increased the award by nearly $1,000, the report said.

According to the report, the AOTC provides up to $2,500 per year of college to Pell Grant recipients and 11.5 million families are expected to benefit from it.

Although the PAYE plan is not the first of its kind, it requires the lowest monthly repayment of the PAYE, IBR and ICR income-based repayment plans, according to the Federal Student Aid website. The IBR plan requires between 10 and 15 percent of a person's monthly income to be used to repay student loans and the ICR plan requires 20 percent of a person's monthly income.

With the PAYE plan, a person only has to pay 10 percent of her monthly income to student debts. Additionally, according to a June 9 release on the White House website, with PAYE any remaining balance is forgiven after 20 years of payments, 10 years for those in public service jobs.

"My only concern would be that postponing payments or reducing the payments would extend the pain, causing graduates to postpone getting married, having children, moving out of their parents' home," Gorney said of the income-based repayment plans. "It probably would be better to bite the bullet and pay the price early on."

In Pennsylvania alone, an estimated total of 193,590 additional borrowers are expected to benefit from the PAYE plan, according to a 2014 snapshot released by the U.S. Department of Education Estimates.

According to the June report, the Obama Administration is working to increase transparency by means of new tools and resources, including the College Scorecard and the Financial Aid Shopping sheet. The aim of these resources, the report said, is to help families make educated college financial decisions.

The College Scorecard can be used to find out more about a college's affordability and value to help students make more informed decisions, the U.S. Department of Education College Affordability and Transparency Center website said. By searching a school through the Scorecard, students will find typical costs, graduation rates, loan default rates, median borrowing and information on graduates' employment.

The Financial Aid Shopping Sheet, according to a White House Fact Sheet released July 24, 2012, is an individualized standard financial aid letter that will help students to easily compare aid packages offered by different institutions. As of June, more than 2,066 institutions had adopted the Shopping Sheet.

Although the government is making an effort to address the burden placed on the country by student debt, thousands of young adults are in the trenches faced with the long, difficult task of repaying $1.1 trillion in loans.

The Bethlehem resident previously mentioned feels so deeply in debt that when his lease is up at the end of the year, he is considering moving back into his parents' home in order to put aside more money for his loans.

"Nobody, after they're out working in the professional world, wants to move back in with their mom and dad," he said.