Two recent articles -- one appearing in the May 2, 2011 edition of the The DePaulia (student newspaper of DePaul University) and one in the May 2, 2011 edition of The Red and Black (student newspaper of The University of Georgia) -- present some unsetting related facts about student loans. They are:

1. In 2010 student loan debt surpassed credit card debt as the single largest type of consumer debt burden carried by Americans;
2. Total student loan debt in 2011 is expected to exceed $1 trillion.

According to the DePaulian article this dramatic surge in borrowing has led many potential undergraduate and graduate students to reconsider going down the postsecondary education path.

Such hesitance has translated into declining enrollment numbers. The DePaulian article presents as an example DePaul's College of Law, whose enrollment has dropped 17 percent since 2010, which exceeds the 11-percent national average for all law schools nationwide.

The Red and Black article reports that University of Georgia students fare slightly better than their counterparts at other schools. The average debt burden for Georgia students stands at $15,938 for undergraduate matriculation. Though their average debt is less than the national average, Georgia students have seen tuition increase 19 percent since 2005.

The chilling effect that escalating tuition rates and greater education borrowing has had suggests that the student aid financial bubble has inflated about as far as it's capable. Some education consumers have seen the writing on the wall and have thus chosen to bide their time, lest they find themselves shackled to debt they cannot discharge through bankruptcy.