Despite all the horror stories you hear about student loan debt and the rising cost of tuition, getting a college degree is still worth it. College graduates earn more — and have significantly higher earning power — over a lifetime than those who only have a high school diploma.

But of course, it’s still up to you to make the best choices.

Read more: How to refinance your student loans

What it costs to attend college in 2017

According to the College Board, here’s a look at the average total cost of attending college for the 2016-2017 school year (including tuition, room & board and other expenses):

• Public two-year community school: $17,000
• In-state public college: $24,610
• Out-of-state public college: $39,890
• Private college: $49,320

How to be smart about student loan debt

About 60% of college students graduated with student loan debt last year — owing an average of $28,400 each. And they aren’t alone — about 43 million Americans currently have student loan debt — owing a total of $1.2 trillion.

But here’s the thing, student loans can still be very beneficial to your future and overall career potential — you’re investing in your education in order to get a better, higher-paying job down the road.

When it comes to borrowing money for college, Clark’s rule of thumb is to never borrow more than you expect to make in your first year’s salary. So when it comes time to take out loans, that can help you avoid borrowing more than you’ll be able to afford to pay back.

The key to making college worth it is making sure you understand your best options when it comes to choosing a school, the type loans you get and the careers you’re considering for your future.

One of the biggest problems with student loan debt in America is the lack of understanding of how the process works from start to finish. So when many people graduate college, they are in for a big surprise when those student loan payments start coming in.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how student loans work, your best options and how to start paying them off.

Consider the risk-reward when choosing a school

To help students and parents financially plan for both college and post-college, when student loan payments kick in, LendEDU has released its second annual risk-reward report. LendEDU is an online marketplace for student loans and student loan refinancing.

The goal of the report is to help students make the most informed decisions about college in order to graduate with the least amount of debt and the highest earning potential.

‘The key to being financially prosperous as a young college graduate is having low student loan debt and a high early career pay. On the other hand, having high debt and low pay is a recipe for financial hardship and stress.’

So here’s the question behind the report: ‘What is the risk-reward of attending a 4-year college or university?’

To answer this question, LendEDU ‘defined the risk of attending college as the average student loan debt per graduate and the reward as the average early career pay for graduates, or the median salary for alumni with 0-5 years of experience.’

Here’s how the group determined the rankings:

‘For this year’s CRRI report, we analyzed 752 public and private 4-year colleges and universities in the United States. Schools with the highest CRRI values (College of the Ozarks – 100.27) should be considered the best risk adjusted choice for undergraduate students. Schools with the lowest CRRI values (Grambling State University – 0.79), on the other hand, should be considered the worst risk adjusted choice for students.​’

College risk-reward rankings for 2017

• CRRI: College Risk-Reward Indicator value (see above)
• ECP: Early Career Pay (median salary for graduates from that school with 0-5 years of experience)
• DPG: â€‹Debt Per Graduate (average debt per graduate from that school)

You can also use LendEDU’s search function to find a specific school. 

Here’s a look at the top 50 ranked schools for 2017.

Rank	School Name	CRRI	ECP (dollar amount)	DPG	School Type	State	State Rank
1	College of the Ozarks	100.27	37,500	374	Private	MO	1
2	St. Petersburg College	50.52	44,100	873	Public	FL	1
3	Princeton University	47.89	65,700	1,372	Private	NJ	1
4	Baruch College CUNY	44.68	51,700	1,157	Public	NY	1
5	Queens College CUNY	35.13	45,700	1,301	Public	NY	2
6	Yale University	23.04	60,800	2,639	Private	CT	1
7	Northeastern Illinois University	19.77	40,400	2,043	Public	IL	1
8	Lehman College CUNY	19.19	40,900	2,131	Public	NY	3
9	Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art	17.23	65,700	3,814	Private	NY	4
10	Harvard University	16.24	65,200	4,014	Private	MA	1
11	Stanford University	15.15	70,800	4,672	Private	CA	1
12	Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne	13.80	41,800	3,028	Public	IN	1
13	City College CUNY	13.76	51,300	3,727	Public	NY	5
14	Brigham Young University	12.32	52,300	4,244	Private	UT	1
15	Vanderbilt University	12.24	57,900	4,731	Private	TN	1
16	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	10.42	78,300	7,515	Private	MA	2
17	Lamar University	9.44	49,800	5,275	Public	TX	1
18	Brooklyn College CUNY	9.43	43,100	4,571	Public	NY	6
19	Duke University	9.17	61,300	6,686	Private	NC	1
20	University of California, Berkeley	8.91	60,500	6,790	Public	CA	2
21	University of Pennsylvania	8.49	62,200	7,324	Private	PA	1
22	Rice University	8.42	62,300	7,403	Private	TX	2
23	Wellesley College	8.36	51,000	6,103	Private	MA	3
24	Washington University in St. Louis	8.07	56,700	7,030	Private	MO	2
25	Colgate University	7.97	56,500	7,092	Private	NY	7
26	Hamilton College	7.93	54,600	6,885	Private	NY	8
27	Brown University	7.76	58,600	7,547	Private	RI	1
28	Washington and Lee University	7.39	54,500	7,372	Private	VA	1
29	Dartmouth College	7.39	60,800	8,228	Private	NH	1
30	University of Chicago	7.32	53,000	7,239	Private	IL	2
31	California State University, Fullerton	6.91	43,400	6,285	Public	CA	3
32	Middlebury College	6.74	49,200	7,297	Private	VT	1
33	California State University, Long Beach	6.71	45,300	6,752	Public	CA	4
34	The University of Texas at Dallas	6.70	51,100	7,623	Public	TX	3
35	San Jose State University	6.67	56,800	8,516	Public	CA	5
36	University of Miami	6.66	50,600	7,600	Private	FL	2
37	University of Utah	6.65	49,400	7,432	Public	UT	2
38	Colby College	6.60	49,300	7,469	Private	ME	1
39	University of Virginia	6.57	57,300	8,717	Public	VA	2
40	University of Washington	6.50	55,100	8,472	Public	WA	1
41	Georgia Institute of Technology	6.48	65,300	10,073	Public	GA	1
42	California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo	6.36	59,300	9,322	Public	CA	6
43	Georgetown University	6.32	55,400	8,765	Private	DC	1
44	Weber State University	6.26	52,000	8,308	Public	UT	3
45	New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology	6.05	62,400	10,306	Public	NM	1
46	Bates College	6.05	47,000	7,768	Private	ME	2
47	Cornell University	6.03	63,200	10,489	Private	NY	9
48	Johns Hopkins University	5.93	61,500	10,375	Private	MD	1
49	Harvey Mudd College	5.83	78,500	13,467	Private	CA	7
50	Carleton College	5.70	46,900	8,226	Private	MN	1

See the full list here.

Student loans 101: Everything to know about borrowing money & paying it back