by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for American Advanced Technicians Institute— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
At AATI specifically, 91% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, for an average of $5,303 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The average federal loan is $5,303, amounting to 96.4% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at AATI, 80% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, with a mean of $4,459 a year. That amounts to 15.9% smaller than the $5,303 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $8,918 across two years and $17,836 after four. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 80% |
| Average federal loan per year | $4,459 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 39 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $173,920 |
The middle borrower at AATI owes $3,789 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $3,789 |
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at AATI.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,167 |
| 25th percentile | $3,789 |
| 75th percentile | $6,544 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $6,544 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at AATI.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for AATI.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for AATI is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 10.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 60 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $3,789 |
| Independent students | $6,544 |
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
Subsidized loans pause interest while you are in school; unsubsidized loans do not. That difference compounds over four years, so the type of loan you take matters as much as the amount.
Important to Remember
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.