TISLA in the News

“Prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” Mayotte advises. “Make sure you know where your loans are, make sure you know what your payments will be when they resume. If they won’t be affordable, now is a great time to look at different payment options.”

The general rule of thumb is not to borrow more than you expect to earn as a starting annual salary, said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit.

To calculate how much your monthly bill would be under different plans, use one of the calculators at Studentaid.gov or Freestudentloanadvice.org, said Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit.

There are many repayment options for federal student loan borrowers, Mayotte said. You can lower your payments — even to zero dollars — with an income-driven repayment plan, or temporarily stop payments through student loan deferment.

Understanding your student debt is one of the best strategies to stay on top of your loans, regardless of how the economy is performing, says Betsy Mayotte, founder of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, had similar advice, telling CNBC that borrowers should only use a forbearance or deferment for short-term hardships such as sudden medical expenses periods of unemployment.

But that leads to a question. Those statewide averages are generally in a pretty tight range, with that figure in the $30,000s in 47 states. So is that even a meaningful way to measure student debt?

“I’d like to see consumers — and policymakers, for that matter — stop concentrating and focusing on that total number,” said Betsy Mayotte, a debt expert and the president and founder of the Massachusetts-based Institute of Student Loan Advisors.

“Because in my experience,” she added, “that’s not necessarily meaningful to families when they’re estimating how much student debt they’re going to have to take on.”