CRYSTAL LAKE – When Brady Olson began shopping for colleges, he knew financial forethought would play a major role in his decision-making process.

“When I picked out my college, I looked at what kind of law school benefits it had to offer,” said Olson, a graduating senior from Prairie Ridge High School who hopes to be a prosecutor or join the FBI.

And even though he found a scholarship at the University of Kansas for thousands per year, including the years he plans to spend at the university’s law school, he still expects student loan debt, as for many other collegegoers, will be “a big burden” later in life.

As of last June, 71 percent of students who earned a bachelor’s degree graduated with student debt, a U.S. Department of Education spokesperson said in an emailed statement. The average amount of debt was about $29,400.

As the end of the year approaches, local high school counselors and state and national experts have said student loan debt has become a commonplace idea for the college-bound, but there still seems to be much that people don’t know.

Think ahead

For those like Olson who have a career in mind, there is a rule of thumb when thinking about student loans, said Betsy Mayotte, director of regulatory compliance for American Student Assistance.

"Generally, you shouldn't take out more debt than the anticipated entry-level salary for your chosen profession," Mayotte said, pointing toward the Bureau of Labor Statistics as a source for that information. "But that's a high water mark."

The same advice was given by Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors.com. In an email, he said if total student debt after ­graduation exceeds annual income, it will be difficult for the borrower to pay it back in 10 years, and an alternate repayment plan might be necessary.

“A similar rule applies to parents,” Kantrowitz wrote. “Parents should borrow no more for all their children than they can afford to repay in 10 years or by the time they retire, whichever comes first.

“This means borrowing no more than their current annual income in total for all children if retirement is 10 or more years away.”

Know your options

Knowing what types of loans and repayment plans are out there is important to consider, too, experts said.

When it comes to federal versus private loans, “generally, federal student loans have lower interest rates and greater flexibility,” said Lynne Baker, managing director of communications for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission.

Baker added resources such as the Department of Education student aid website can offer information about that, as well as the various repayment plans, some of which are fairly new. Plans for direct loan and Federal Family Education Loan repayment vary widely from standard to extended to income-based.

Explore other options

For Paula Steiner, the college and career center coordinator at Prairie Ridge, putting things into perspective like that, as well as exhausting all other options, is a big part of her job.

She has a long list of merit-based scholarship opportunities for a number of out-of-state schools she said most students are completely unaware of. To her, student loans, while usually an option, don’t need to be the first one to consider.

“Students have heard about student loans, they’ve heard about scholarships, and I sometimes think they don’t have a realistic idea of how easy it is to get those scholarships or what those loans really mean,” Steiner said, adding she often gives students a loan repayment chart that shows what their payments might look like if they take out a particular amount in loans. “It shows, this is what your payment looks like, and in many cases, that’s a car payment or a house payment. I just try to give them a realistic view.”

When a student comes to her about paying for college, she advises, but to an extent.

First, she said every family should fill out the FAFSA no matter the household income. Then, it’s up to each individual family.

“I think $5,500 is the max for freshmen to take out [for federal loans] – I’m comfortable with that – but if that’s not enough for someone, I tell them to go and have a really good heart-to-heart with their family,” Steiner said.

In Olson’s case, he reiterated that it will be a long, expensive road to get to where he wants to be.

“Even just undergrad is going to be a lot of money,” he said. “But in regard to what I’m planning post-graduation, it’s worth it.”