The authors find that college students are borrowing more and taking on riskier forms of debt than ever before. If tuition increases continue to grow faster than inflation and family income and grant aid fails to keep pace, the authors project that more students will be left with few choices beyond student loans--and, increasingly, private loans. This course is particularly risky for low-income and minority students, who have historically been more likely to default. The fact that the biggest increases in loan amounts and loan participation are occurring in the fast-growing for-profit sector, which historically has had higher default rates, suggests that worrisome default rates are likely to worsen in the future if more effective financial aid policies are not adopted. Until federal and state governments work with institutions to restrain prices while simultaneously re-focusing financial aid on needy students, the authors caution that the tide of college debt will continue to rise. Charts indicate how much higher education debt is increasing, identify reasons for the surge, and illustrate steps policymakers can take to help students attend college without drowning in debt. (Contains 5 endnotes and 15 charts.)