by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Alaska Career College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Alaska Career College specifically, 29% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, at roughly $6,156 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $6,268. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a typical dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Across the full undergraduate body at Alaska Career College (freshmen included), 27% rely on federal student loans toward their education, with a mean of $6,773 a year. That is 8.1% larger than the first-year federal average of $6,268.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $13,546 by year two and around $27,092 over a four-year span. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 27% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,773 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 98 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $663,767 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Alaska Career College carry a median federal debt of $7,199 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $7,199 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $7,377 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,750 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Alaska Career College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,199 |
| 25th percentile | $5,499 |
| 75th percentile | $9,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $16,291 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Alaska Career College.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Alaska Career College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 29 | $6,913 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Alaska Career College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Alaska Career College is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 13.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 346 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $7,199 |
| Middle income | $6,397 |
| High income | $5,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $7,199 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $7,984 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Alaska Career College.
Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
Unsubsidized federal student loans accrue interest every month — even while you are still enrolled. Unless you pay that interest as it builds, the balance you owe at graduation can be noticeably higher than the amount you originally borrowed.
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.