As economic inequality in higher education continues to increase, many states and universities have started to introduce financial promise programs meant to eliminate college costs for eligible students. Further, many lawmakers and politicians have also brought debt-free college to the forefront of their campaigns, creating a discourse of the allegedly debt-free student. While debt is most commonly associated with financial liability, scholars have also started to consider other, non-financial ways debt can manifest Financial debts require repayment in dollars, while non-financial debts might require repayment not in money, but in feeling, conduct, attitude, or sense of obligation, for example. When more than the association of money is considered, it is possible to contemplate the other ways that debt, both financial and non-financial, might work to affect individual decision making across multiple temporalities. Much has been written about the foreclosing aspects of debt theoretically, but little empirical research has been conducted in this area. This study highlights how low-income students in a promise program understand and make meaning of their present and future decision making in relation to perceptions of their own debt. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with thirteen low-income college students who qualified for a need-based promise program. Transcripts of each interview were analyzed to identify themes relevant to each research question. The results of this study suggest that the participants in this sample experienced not only financial debts with attending college, but non-financial debts as well. Specifically, students discussed their experiences navigating non-financial emotional, social, and racial/ethnic debts, among others, as they paid for the opportunity to attend college. Additionally, many of the students in this sample experienced the foreclosing aspects of these non-financial debts as they navigated the college decision making process including where they felt they could attend and what major to pursue. Importantly however, these non-financial debts were not only foreclosing. In fact, many of the students expressed the opportunities they were able to pursue as a result of the commitments and non-financial debts they felt they owed their families, highlighting the both the foreclosing and opportunity creating nature of these non-financial debts. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]