re: what (in your opinion) is a reasonable amount of SL debt to incur?

0.00. Get a summer job and pay your tuition. Boomers am I doing it right?

As little as possible.

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For a good degree (engineering, accounting, etc.)

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I racked up around $160K over the course of 6 years (3.5 years PETE, 2.5 years & graduated in CM, working nearly 40 hrs at night from sophomore year to graduation), but that was tuition, one summer session, out of state fees (after budget cuts killed my scholarship ), rent for 2-3 years (paid out of pocket the rest) for a useful degree from the engineering school. I do better than expected for being fresh out of school, so I'm throwing $1500/mo to try and pay them off in 12ish years with interest. It's the most expensive piece of paper I have in my office /

Borrow all you want and vote Bernie. Problem solved.

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Less than one years salary for whatever profession the degree is for

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So hard to determine that. No one knows where they'd be. I'd take out 100k in loans if I knew I would end up where I am now. But I would have never known that as a student. Luckily my parents could pay. I didn't even know what I wanted to do, so how would I know how much loan I should take out? I knew I'd get an ME degree, but had no clue what field I'd work in until senior year after going on interviews. Salary could be from 45k to 100k.

for an undergrad degree? none

summer jobs, scholarships, and side jobs should be able to get your through college easily without taking out loans

you might be poor as frick and don't always get to go out every weekend or get to do anything during the summer

but graduating college debt free puts you ahead in life really early

I did it and it really helped me get financially secure early in life

It actually will be decreasing to 3.76% beginning July 1 for undergrads.

LINK