by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Art Academy of Cincinnati, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At AAC specifically, 63% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, for an average of $11,599 each, across private and federal loan sources.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,045, representing 91.7% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the 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.
Counting every undergraduate at AAC, 69% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, borrowing on average $11,941 a year. This works out to 136.7% more than the $5,045 borrowed by freshmen.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $23,882 by year two and around $47,764 after four. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 69% |
| Average federal loan per year | $11,941 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 176 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,101,700 |
The middle borrower at AAC owes $11,750 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $11,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at AAC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $33,596 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at AAC.
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 AAC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 66 | $30,050 |
| Completed (graduates) | 32 | $56,204 |
| Did not complete | 34 | $14,250 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $668.33/mo.
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. AAC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for AAC appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 60 |
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 | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $12,000 |
| High income | $14,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $9,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,208 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $10,500 |
| Independent students | $25,250 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at AAC.
Subsidized vs. 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.