Most high-school guidance counselors are concerned about the level of debt many of their students take on to attend college, and 76 percent of the counselors answering a recent survey said it was “somewhat hard” to advise students and their families on how much money they should borrow.

The findings come from a national study, “Balancing Acts: How High-School Counselors View Risks and Opportunities of Students Loans,” that is being released today by the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the Project on Student Debt.

While 89 percent of counselors agreed that loans help financially needy students attend college, 37 percent said such students should avoid loans because of the risk of default. More than three out of four counselors said that worries about loan debt affect the decisions students and their families make about whether and where to attend college.

Almost all counselors — 97 percent of those surveyed — said students and their families needed a lot of guidance in navigating the student-loan process, yet over two-thirds of counselors said they found it hard to provide adequate information about which types of loans are best. —Elizabeth F. Farrell