by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Bennington College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
Among first-year students at Bennington, 54% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $6,393 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,935, amounting to 89.7% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Looking at all undergraduates at Bennington, freshmen included, 50% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $6,181 per year. That is 25.2% above the freshman federal average of $4,935.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $12,362 over two years and about $24,724 after four. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 50% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,181 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 379 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,342,771 |
The median student at Bennington borrows $19,250 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,250 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,000 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Bennington.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $8,750 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $27,000 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Bennington.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Bennington.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 60 | $24,935 |
| Completed (graduates) | 41 | $24,023 |
| Did not complete | 19 | $26,103 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $285.66/mo.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Bennington.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Bennington appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 186 |
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 | $15,423 |
| Middle income | $18,198 |
| High income | $21,250 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,750 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Bennington.
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.