Student loans are serious business. You need to think about how much you are borrowing and whether you will be able to afford to pay back those loans. The College Savings Calculator is a powerful tool to help you work out how much you could or should be saving to meet college expenses, and how to maximize your savings efforts. No matter which loans you decide to accept, be a wise borrower and only borrow what you need to pay for your educational expenses each year.

As an aviation student at Kansas State University, Josh Stacey needs to pay for flight training, which costs about $100 per hour. By the time he graduates with his bachelor's degree, he expects that he will have incurred at least $50,000 in loans.

Stacey says that he researched lending options carefully to make sure that he got the best rate he could. He also made sure he understood his repayment responsibilities after graduation, when he starts his career as a pilot.