For students who have graduated recently, those who will graduate in the near future and incoming students, loans are a huge part of a college education. The increasing levels of debt are a major concern for all of us.

We all realize student loans have the possibility to put us into significant debt and give us bad credit, but at this point in time, they are a necessary evil. Without them, most of us would struggle finding a way to attend college.

What aren’t necessary about loans are the intense levels of stress they put on the mind and body. A recent study put out by the University of South Carolina provided evidence that the more loans, the more negative psychological effects for the loan holder.

Depression, anxiety and stress tend to be more prevalent in those with high rates of student loans. Think about how much student debt you will have after you graduate. How does that make you feel?

The amount of student loan debt for the average American student is $28,400. For some people, that is a whole year’s salary, and some students come out with more than that. This says nothing about all of the interest these loans will accumulate while we’re trying to get them paid off.

Each year adds yet another round of debt. The real question is, do we really know what we’re getting into? Those courses we were supposed to take when signing up for loans were dry and extremely hard to get through. Many of us probably just filled out what we needed to and moved on without paying close attention.

As graduation inches closer for each student, those loans start looming closer and closer. We start thinking about what we signed and what it actually means for our lives. At this point, many of us don’t know what to do with all of the debt we’ve accumulated.

It could be beneficial to offer an educational session about student loans and the best way to handle them. Some sort of lecture or discussion that we need to go through before we sign our lives away could help students figure out what kind of student loan they should get and what some of the impacts could be.

Simpson College might want to consider offering a counseling session to students who are going to be graduating during the course of that year. It would be a lot to take on, but it would help the students who don’t know exactly what having loans entails.

Lessening the scariness of signing for loans and having to pay them off could have a positive impact on many college students. The negative psychological impacts may decrease and allow graduates to focus on finding a job and helping solve problems rather than panicking about debt.

The more we know, the more likely we will be to handle the loans and be able to pay them off in a timely manner. Each educational session could make a significant difference.