Sharde Jennings dreams of being a lawyer, but the $65,000 in student loans she acquired to complete her bachelor’s degree has her contemplating teaching or any job that has a loan-forgiveness program. For an increasing number of students like Jennings, their right-out-of-college career choices are being dictated by their loan situation. 

College students are graduating with record levels of debt as they’ve come to increasingly rely on student loans to meet their college expenses. The pressure to start repaying these loans is prompting many of them to consider loan forgiveness programs.

 “In three years, I have accumulated around $65,000 in student loans, hence (the possibility of) me postponing law school in fear of acquiring more debt,” said Jennings, a native of Milwaukee who is graduating from Dillard University this spring.

“I am doing extensive research on financial aid packages offered by law schools because of the amount of undergraduate loan debt I have accumulated,” Jennings said.

According to Trends in Student Aid by the College Board, nearly two-thirds of students at four-year colleges and universities have student loan debt. Over the past decade, debt levels for graduating seniors with student loans more than doubled from $9,250 to $19,200.

In addition to the U.S. Department of Education’s administered provisions, there are federal loan forgiveness and service payback programs specific to particular occupations or categories of borrowers, for example, health professionals, legal professionals, teachers and even the military.

“When students graduate from undergraduate and graduate school they could have up to six figure amounts of student loan debt,” said Kevin Murphy, grants coordinator at the Louisiana Bar Foundation. “The whole concept of loan forgiveness programs is so important for students.”

Student loan forgiveness programs provide financial incentives in exchange for work commitment. These programs agree to repay a percentage of an employee’s student loan.