by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for California State University Maritime Academy: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Cal Maritime, 37% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, averaging $8,072 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $5,496, or about 99.9% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Across the full undergraduate body at Cal Maritime (freshmen included), 39% take out federal student loans, for a typical $6,849 annually. This is 24.6% above the $5,496 borrowed by freshmen.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $13,698 across two years and $27,396 over a four-year span. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 39% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,849 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 299 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,047,873 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Cal Maritime carry a median federal debt of $16,889 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $16,889 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $24,965 |
| Students who withdrew | $10,000 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Cal Maritime.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $8,750 |
| 75th percentile | $29,197 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $43,190 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Cal Maritime.
The figures above count only the students own federal loans. Adding PLUS loans (borrowed by parents or graduate students) gives a fuller picture of total borrowing at Cal Maritime.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 144 | $25,316 |
| Completed (graduates) | 74 | $38,432 |
| Did not complete | 70 | $20,957 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $457.0/mo.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Cal Maritime.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Cal Maritime appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 188 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $16,356 |
| Middle income | $15,459 |
| High income | $17,534 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $16,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,433 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $16,500 |
| Independent students | $22,242 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Cal Maritime.
Subsidized vs. Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
Important to Remember
Declaring bankruptcy does not erase federal student loan debt. If you stop paying, the federal government can garnish a portion of your wages until the loans are repaid.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.