(Creative Commons)

Currently, the overall student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion. This is more than all other loans, except mortgages.

That being said, Slate magazine reports that graduate students' role in perpetuating this problem has been highly underrepresented. Although graduate students make up a mere 15 percent of higher education, they accounted for one-third of the most recent academic year's federal direct loans.

Of course, all graduate degrees are not equally expensive. Even so, whether one is receiving a law degree or an MBA, evidence from the Department of Education suggests that they are going to borrow, on average, a minimum of $41,000. For a medical degree, one is looking at leaving school burdened by approximately $200,000 worth of debt. The New American Foundation released a study on Tuesday revealing that, from 2004 to 2012, students who attended a university for grduate school borrowed 43 percent more money.

(Slate Magazine)

Still, students are continually willing to enter into massive amount of debt in order to attend graduate school. This phenomenon is largely driven by Washington's lending policies. First of all, under the Grad Plus lending program, the amount of money that a graduate student can borrow is limitless. Secondly, the government now offers income-based repayment programs, which forgive loan balances after 20 years.

So, why not finance an education worth hundreds of thousands of dollars? Well, to begin, in today's economy, grdaute school does not guarantee success. Indeed, it is irrational for students to think that their graduate degreees equate to higher paying jobs. Furthermore, extreme borrowing is only fueling increasingly expensive graduate school programs. It is a vicious cycle that cannot sustain itself. However, the question of how long it will take before a new system is in place is utterly uncertain.

Contact Executive Producer Jackie Giordano here.