by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at BFIT, 48% of first-year students take on loan debt, borrowing on average $5,867 per student, private and federal loans combined.
Federal loans alone average $5,412, or about 98.4% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Looking at all undergraduates at BFIT, freshmen included, 52% rely on federal student loans toward their education, with a mean of $5,730 per year. This works out to 5.9% larger than the $5,412 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $11,460 after two years and $22,920 after four. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 52% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,730 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 217 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,243,303 |
The middle borrower at BFIT owes $9,500 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $9,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $12,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at BFIT.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $14,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $20,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at BFIT.
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 BFIT.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 35 | $10,934 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. BFIT.
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 BFIT is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 24.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 322 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $6,500 |
| High income | $6,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $9,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $8,865 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $6,124 |
| Independent students | $9,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at BFIT.
The Difference Between 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.
Worth Knowing
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.