by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Big Bend 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.
Looking at the entering class at Big Bend Community College, 10% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, at roughly $10,069 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,030, amounting to 91.5% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
For undergraduates overall at Big Bend Community College, 9% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, with a mean of $6,326 annually. This works out to 25.8% higher than the freshman federal average of $5,030.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $12,652 over two years and about $25,304 across a four-year program. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 9% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,326 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 121 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $765,495 |
The median student at Big Bend Community College borrows $6,832 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,832 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,166 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,667 |
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 Big Bend Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,433 |
| 25th percentile | $3,000 |
| 75th percentile | $11,230 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $17,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Big Bend Community College.
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 Big Bend Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 59 | $15,304 |
| Completed (graduates) | 19 | $9,969 |
| Did not complete | 40 | $18,101 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $118.54/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 Big Bend Community College.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 30 | $15,652 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 29 | $14,378 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Big Bend Community College.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Big Bend Community College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 15.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 367 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $7,475 |
| Middle income | $6,018 |
| High income | $6,505 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,630 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,109 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,564 |
| Independent students | $8,480 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Big Bend Community College.
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.
Important to Remember
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.