U.S. college students are often told to borrow today to pay for tomorrow, but as student loan debt swelled to over $1 trillion this year, analysts warn that millions of graduates may default as they enter still-dismal job market. Students are taking on too much debt, they warn. However, as two out of every three new jobs being created in the United States now require a college degree – is there any other option for the young generation?

"Making college affordable — that's one of the best things we can do for the economy," Obama told a crowd of college-age supporters June 7 at the University of Nevada.

The cost of higher education is rising faster than the pace of inflation. Between 1999 and 2009, tuition at four-year public colleges rose 73 percent on average, and tuition at private nonprofit colleges jumped 34 percent. The average student loan debt upon graduation is now more than $23,000.

Lindsay Walker, 24, a college student in Brooklyn, New York City, said she expects to rack up more than $22,000 in government loans by the time she finishes a bachelor's degree in nursing – despite winning a $10,000 scholarship, living rent-free, and using her own savings of more than $6,000. She described her debt as modest compared with other students.

"College is definitely too expensive," Walker said. "People are graduating with a crazy amount of loans, and that weakens the incentive to go to college in the first place."

Walker confesses she knows "nothing" about her loans, including how much her monthly payments will be after graduation.

"I think that should be the school's responsibility," she said. "They should make it a priority to educate students on monetary issues and financial guidance – help students get their foot out the door with some job assistance or something."

Student loan debt, both private and public, has exceeded $1 trillion nationwide, surpassing total credit-card debt and prompting warnings of a tsunami of potential defaults as new grads enter a still-dismal job market. Unlike mortgages, student loans often cannot be discharged by bankruptcy or even, in some cases, death.

Loans from banks and other private lenders, which make up about 15 percent of outstanding student debt, are among the most dangerous for young borrowers. These loans often have variable terms, with interest rates that can be more than double the federal terms. And since student loan payments are typically deferred until after graduation, borrowers can rack up tens of thousands in debt without making a single payment.

"Like mortgages before the financial crisis, many borrowers took on private student-loan debt with terms and conditions they didn't fully understand," Rohit Chopra, the student-loan ombudsman at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, told the San Francisco Chronicle. Recent graduates "are now fighting to stay afloat because these loans don't always have the same repayment options as federal student loans," he said.

Austin Bousley, 25, a student who signed up for a private loan over the Internet, told the Chronicle "it was like signing up for iTunes."

While Walker said she didn't consider her loans to be predatory, she did feel that flexible-rate terms were unfair.

"Why aren't student loans fixed-rate loans?" she asked. "Why is it fair that the interest can jump?"

President Obama agrees, telling University of Nevada students: "the No. 1 thing Congress should do for you is to stop interest rates on student loans from going up."

Obama is battling with the U.S. Congress over the interest rate on current federal Stafford loans. The rate, which was reduced to 3.4 percent in 2007 as the economy stumbled, is due to return to 6.8 percent on July 1, affecting more than 7 million student loans.

As the student loan crisis heats up election-year rhetoric, Obama has made much of a federal program to help low-income students consolidate their loans and cap payments at a 10 percent of discretionary income. About 700,000 borrowers are enrolled in the program. A new student loan bill before Congress also proposes to allow students in economic hardship to discharge up to $45,000 in loans after 10 years of payments.

Walker said she has looked into applying for the consolidation program, but that she does not qualify. The system seems skewed, she said, punishing students who try to be fiscally responsible and doing little to stop students who abuse the program.

"Some people I know back home in Mississippi, they sign up for online classes, get federal loans and then don't attend," she said. "They have no intention on paying those loans back, and they have no collateral and no fear of repercussions."

Walker said she has "all aspirations" of paying off her debt as speedily as possible after she graduates, lest she end up like her mother, Mary, a 50-year-old nurse in Mississippi – who is still making payments on her own student loans.

"She feels trapped. It's a vicious cycle," Walker said. "I don't want to be making payments when I'm 50."

(Reporting from New York)