Staggering Student Debt Weighs Heavily On Americans

The cost of a US university degree has left people wide-eyed for decades but student debt has now mushroomed into a nightmare for Americans with potential to explode as the next major US financial crisis.

Students at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, for instance, can typically expect to borrow $23,445 to top off the total $31,812 they might need. And that's just for the first (or freshman) year of a four-year degree.

"You'll pay approximately $1,414 per month for 10 years to cover your total borrowing" once schooling is completed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency, says on its website

"This equals 29 $50 textbooks every month."

It's relatively easier at Harvard (typical first-year borrowing stands at $16,459, because average grants and scholarships are higher) and the University of California in Los Angeles ($13,796 in borrowing), but the picture is clear.

Two years ago, for the first time, total outstanding student debt in the United States topped $1 trillion, according to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys.

That's more than what Americans owe on their credit cards.

Read More