by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Automeca Technical College - Ponce: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at Automeca Technical College - Ponce, 10% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, at roughly $2,693 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $2,693, amounting to 49.0% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at Automeca Technical College - Ponce, 15% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $2,209 annually. That is 18.0% lower than the $2,693 borrowed by freshmen.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $4,418 over two years and about $8,836 over four years. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 15% |
| Average federal loan per year | $2,209 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 42 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $92,760 |
The middle borrower at Automeca Technical College - Ponce owes $3,000 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $3,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $3,030 |
| Students who withdrew | $2,050 |
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 Automeca Technical College - Ponce.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,473 |
| 25th percentile | $1,750 |
| 75th percentile | $3,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $5,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Automeca Technical College - Ponce.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Automeca Technical College - Ponce.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 64 | $5,000 |
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Automeca Technical College - Ponce.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 13 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 51 | — |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Automeca Technical College - Ponce.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Automeca Technical College - Ponce follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 16.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 312 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $2,600 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $2,817 |
| Continuing-generation students | $3,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $2,600 |
| Independent students | $3,150 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Automeca Technical College - Ponce.
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.