by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Brown University— 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.
At Brown, 13% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $12,431 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federal loan is $5,135, or about 93.4% 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 Brown, 10% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, averaging $5,885 each per year. That is 14.6% more than the $5,135 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $11,770 over two years and about $23,540 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 | 10% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,885 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 742 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $4,366,999 |
The median student at Brown borrows $10,000 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $10,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $11,428 |
| Students who withdrew | $6,500 |
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 Brown.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,000 |
| 25th percentile | $8,000 |
| 75th percentile | $24,808 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $35,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Brown.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Brown.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 427 | $45,776 |
| Completed (graduates) | 338 | $48,245 |
| Did not complete | 89 | $35,605 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $573.68/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Brown.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 386 | $45,031 |
| No Stafford loan | 41 | $59,660 |
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 325 | $48,253 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 102 | $34,963 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Brown.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Brown appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 818 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $7,847 |
| Middle income | $8,000 |
| High income | $11,076 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $10,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $10,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Brown.
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
Did You Know?
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.