After avoiding it for the past year or so, I totaled up my private and federal loans I’ve racked up in the past four years. I have a terrible habit of ignoring my bills until the last minute, as I tend to completely panic and worry myself to death about debt payback.

Though I doubt many students are as irresponsible as I am and actually keep on top of their bills, I suspect a lot of them are getting relatively worried about their finances and their futures at Columbia-meaning worrying about if they have a future, worrying about not being able to register for classes next semester when they can’t pay their bill.

It’s no secret that college tuition, especially at a private institution, is expensive and continues to increase rapidly. Full-time tuition at Columbia has increased to $17,950 since the 2005-06 academic year, when full-time tuition was $15,588. But Columbia officials continue to report that enrollment numbers are on the rise.

Many college students, however, are panicking, wondering how they will pay for next semester’s tuition as private lenders continue to jump ship or tighten their restrictions in the midst of the worst economy our generation has ever seen. Now more than ever, some experts are posing questions a lot of us have considered at one point or another: Is college really worth a lifetime of debt? Will I ever be able to pay it back?

According to the Chicago Tribune, experts are saying college is no longer a wise investment, especially for students who are pursuing low-paying careers. They say debts, which can add up to more than $100,000, are next to impossible to pay off for graduates in low-paying jobs, especially when the income gap between college and high school graduates is shrinking. According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, people with a bachelor’s degree earned 90 percent more than high school graduates in 2007, down from 96 percent in 2000.

So at an arts college like Columbia, with majors catered more to artists pursuing mostly low-paying careers, does this mean we’re in more trouble than everyone else?

Networking, pursuing job opportunities and marketing your abilities are major elements of education at Columbia. And the success rates are pretty remarkable, as successful Columbia alumni seem to be popping up everywhere. But for many of us studying for careers we are absolutely passionate about even though they may not pay very well, this is our reality.

It’s not a smart financial investment to spend $100,000 on four years of tuition and expenses only to land a job post-graduation that pays $45,000 a year or doesn’t even guarantee a stable paycheck. A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that employers will decrease hiring by 1.6 percent for 2009 graduates. It’s no wonder students are facing this reality head-on and weighing the pros and cons of being in debt for the rest of their lives to pursue a dream.

But finances aside, higher education is still one of the greatest weapons we can have going into the ailing job market and the real world. Students complain about a lot of things at Columbia-bureaucratic inadequacies, mean professors, apathetic students wasting our time in classes-but we’re still better off than those who didn’t make the leap to college at all. Though the gap between the earnings of high school graduates and college graduates is shrinking, it’s still there.

And not everything learned in college is educational. A lot of what I’ve learned from going to college at Columbia is social. I’ve seen timid, shy students turn into sociable networking machines.

We, especially at Columbia, have to seriously ask ourselves these questions, since most of us will be entering unstable job markets after graduation. And those of us who do land jobs have to continue questioning every expense, with huge debts from student loans looming over our heads. But it’s only worth it if you’re really passionate about what you’re studying. Students shouldn’t waste their money-or their parents’-on an education many others would kill to have, who couldn’t return to Columbia because they couldn’t pay the bill.

Students all need to be responsible about their financial decisions now, including how student loan money is spent. Do you really need to take out a few extra thousand dollars to get an iPhone or a new designer coat? If you can’t pay for it now, what makes you think you’ll be able to pay for it after graduation?

I never took out much extra in student loans than what I needed for books and help with living expenses, like rent. So when I finally figured out how much I have in student loans, it wasn’t as bad as I originally thought. But regardless, I’ll be back in January to finish up the last of my classes at Columbia. And thank God for that. I don’t think I could handle another semester of thinking about how much money I wasted on that class I just missed by oversleeping.