by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Bluffton University: 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.
Among first-year students at Bluffton, 79% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $8,496 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $6,162. 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.
Across the full undergraduate body at Bluffton (freshmen included), 77% finance part of their studies with federal loans, for a typical $6,978 per year. This works out to 13.2% above the $6,162 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $13,956 over two years and about $27,912 over a four-year span. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 77% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,978 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 461 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,216,759 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Bluffton carry a median federal debt of $19,500 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,274 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Bluffton.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,705 |
| 25th percentile | $5,687 |
| 75th percentile | $28,700 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $37,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Bluffton.
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 Bluffton.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 175 | $28,224 |
| Completed (graduates) | 94 | $43,100 |
| Did not complete | 81 | $13,700 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $512.5/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at Bluffton.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 164 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 11 | — |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Bluffton.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Bluffton is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 355 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $12,656 |
| Middle income | $18,458 |
| High income | $21,826 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,000 |
| Independent students | $24,750 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Bluffton.
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.
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.