by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Bay de Noc Community 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 Bay College, 34% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, at roughly $6,860 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $6,129. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap for a typical dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Counting every undergraduate at Bay College, 33% borrow through federal student loan programs, borrowing on average $6,464 each per year. This is 5.5% larger than the $6,129 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $12,928 over two years and about $25,856 across a four-year program. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 33% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,464 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 360 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,326,888 |
The median student at Bay College borrows $8,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $12,618 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,750 |
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 Bay College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $3,200 |
| 75th percentile | $12,998 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $24,774 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Bay College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Bay College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 61 | $10,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 22 | $8,995 |
| Did not complete | 39 | $10,405 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $106.96/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 Bay College.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 36 | $9,895 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 25 | $10,000 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Bay College.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Bay College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 15.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 480 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $8,558 |
| Middle income | $8,000 |
| High income | $7,230 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $8,217 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,920 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $10,500 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Bay College.
Subsidized vs. 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.
Important to Remember
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.