With average student debt this year climbing to an all-time high of $26,500, the issue took on new prominence when a study by the Pew Research Center found that—for the first time in history—nearly 20% of U.S. households have outstanding student loan debt. College debt, which had already outpaced credit card debt, topped $1 trillion this year—also a first. Many students and college administrators have started to question the bang that higher education delivers for all those bucks. In a poll sponsored by TIME and the Carnegie Corporation of New York this fall, 80% of U.S. adults surveyed said that at many colleges, the education students receive is not worth what they pay for it. And although President Obama started 2012 by issuing a plan to make college costs more transparent and lower the monthly repayments for some borrowers, the majority of debt holders will feel the pain for years, if not decades, to come.