by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend California Institute of Technology: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Caltech, 20% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, borrowing on average $11,846 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $4,873, which is 88.6% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Counting every undergraduate at Caltech, 4% finance part of their studies with federal loans, borrowing on average $6,212 a year. It comes to 27.5% more than the $4,873 typical freshmen borrow.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $12,424 in two years and roughly $24,848 over a four-year span. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 4% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,212 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 44 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $273,325 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Caltech carry a median federal debt of $12,000 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $12,000 |
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Caltech.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $20,458 |
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 Caltech.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 32 | $27,881 |
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Caltech.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 15 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 17 | — |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Caltech.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Caltech is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 36 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Subsidized vs. 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.
Worth Knowing
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.