<p>At the age of 18, the debts you take on to go to school seem abstract, and unreal. Four years seems like a really long time at that age.</p>
<p>Those debts seem very concrete once you start writing sizable checks each month. And the four years will go by in a flash.</p>
<p>Right now, the decision about where to go to school seems so important that it blots out all other concerns. </p>
<p>Debt can be like that, too. It can dictate where you live, and how you live. It can make you feel compelled to spend virtually all of your waking hours doing something you hate.</p>
<p>Remember all of those folk tales about people who sell their souls to the devil ?</p>
<p>Going to your number one school more bragging rights than your sixth choice when the topic of conversation with new acquaintances turns to “where did you go to college?”</p>
<p>Are bragging rights worth an extra six figures of debt to you?</p>