When referring to future life choices and college education, one of the relevant topics that must be considered is student college debt. Many students have been left to face issues psychologically, economically, and socially over the years after their graduation. Many students expect to acquire a stable income and high paying jobs in the future so that they can pay back their debts. Students often perceive higher education as the primary journey to upward mobility. However, many pitfalls may be faced on this journey, when students will accumulate excessive debt.

The future life of choices of students who graduate with debt may be influenced. These choices can be entering specific low-paying professions such as social work or teaching, getting married, owning a home, or buying a car. It has been found that unmanageable debt levels are found in cases of recent public college graduates who entered the teaching field. Debt becomes unmanageable when a significant portion of yearly personal income is taken up by loans taken by students and other outstanding debts. Unmanageable debt is mostly found in cases of students who earn lower incomes in comparison to the national average.

The country will be requiring 2 million new teachers in the next ten years, but students may be discouraged from pursuing public service or teaching careers due to low earning potential and increasing levels of student debt. Today, students are taking more college debt than in the past. It is quite common for students, particularly those that have low-income to be a college drop out. Despite they may have gathered thousands of dollars as debt taken by them. In the past decade, there was a ten-fold increase in college debt taken by the student. Long-term threats were posed by this number to life choices and lifelong decisions of college graduates.