by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Butler Tech - D Russel Lee Career Center— 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 D Russel Lee Career Center, 22% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $6,293 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federal loan is $6,276. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a typical dependent student. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Counting every undergraduate at D Russel Lee Career Center, 19% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $6,276 each per year.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $12,552 after two years and $25,104 after four. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 19% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,276 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 170 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,067,001 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at D Russel Lee Career Center carry a median federal debt of $6,396 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,396 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $6,396 |
| Students who withdrew | $3,198 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 D Russel Lee Career Center.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,816 |
| 25th percentile | $3,875 |
| 75th percentile | $7,768 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $9,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at D Russel Lee Career Center.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for D Russel Lee Career Center.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 48 | $7,038 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. D Russel Lee Career Center.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for D Russel Lee Career Center follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 9.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 308 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
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 | $6,438 |
| Middle income | $6,307 |
| High income | $4,230 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,396 |
| Continuing-generation students | $4,705 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $3,825 |
| Independent students | $6,840 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at D Russel Lee Career Center.
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.
Important to Remember
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.