by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend University of California-San Francisco, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for UCSF.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,000 |
| 25th percentile | $4,500 |
| 75th percentile | $11,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $14,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at UCSF.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at UCSF.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 216 | $22,324 |
| Completed (graduates) | 183 | $21,571 |
| Did not complete | 33 | $30,846 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $256.5/mo.
Stafford loans are the federal direct-loan program most undergraduates use. The breakdown below separates borrowers who used Stafford loans from those who did not at UCSF.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 164 | $21,493 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 52 | $28,613 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. UCSF.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for UCSF appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 620 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
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.
Did You Know?
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.