According to the latest statistics for 2017, the student loan debt is in excess of $ 1.45 trillion owed by about 44 million borrowers. Over the last three decades, student loan debt has skyrocketed as the tuition cost has increased by more than 1,000 percent. An increased number of students are leaving colleges/universities with the amount of debt without having sufficient means to pay it back. Most students and their families do not fully understand the burden of student loan debt upon entering the college. The students are hoping to pay back the loans from the increased earnings from college degree. However, income from most entry-level jobs does not enable them to make the required monthly payments, causing default on the loans. According to a “Life Delayed†Report, many borrowers are making sacrifices in other areas of their lives including big ticket purchases such as home or a car; even personal life events such as marriage and children are getting put on the back-burner due to overwhelming student loan debt they carry (Lanza, 2016). Student loans have become a normal way of financing higher education. The average amount of student loan debt has increased from $ 10,000 in 1993 to more than $ 37,000 in 2016. After graduation, over 11 percent of these borrowers default on their loans. This can have significant implications for the financial markets and the entire economy. Appropriate actions must be initiated to deal with the student loan debt problems in the United States. This paper will discuss these and related issues, including the history and proliferation of student loan usage in the U.S..