Student loans are on the rise, and current graduates are disproportionately affected compared to graduates in years past.

Your ability to payback depends mostly on the employment you receive after you graduate.

According to a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper:

For every additional $1,000 borrowed, the likelihood of nonpayment rises by 0.4 percentage points. Put differently, to offset every additional $1,000 you borrow, you need to earn an additional $10,000 in income or your risk of nonpayment will rise.

Students most likely to pay back their loans had the highest salaries and went to four year schools, which means that students who took loans to go to community colleges and other programs were most likely to default on student loans.

Other interesting factors include whether or not your mother went to college, your gender, and race.

You’re more likely to take out more in loans if your mother didn’t go to college.

Also:

While men and women have “nearly identical” default rates, according to the paper, “women have defaulted on 80% more debt than have men.”

It appears race may also be a factor:

black borrowers still owe 51% of their student loans 10 years after college, while white borrowers owe only 16%. Hispanics and Asians owe 22% and 24%, respectively.

The bottom line is this: don’t take out student loans beyond what you absolutely need and can’t pay. Choose a school that’s more cost-effective than prestigious. Start working on obtaining employment at least 2 years before graduation. And don’t graduate with an enormous ball-and-chain of debt.