by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend California State Polytechnic University-Pomona: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Cal Poly Pomona, 27% of first-year students take on loan debt, averaging $5,525 each, across private and federal loan sources.
On the federal side, the average loan is $4,716, equal to roughly 85.7% 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.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at Cal Poly Pomona, 25% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, for a typical $6,476 each per year. That is 37.3% more than the first-year federal average of $4,716.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,952 by year two and around $25,904 by the fourth year. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 25% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,476 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 6,011 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $38,925,665 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Cal Poly Pomona carry a median federal debt of $13,437 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,437 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $16,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,669 |
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 Cal Poly Pomona.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,245 |
| 25th percentile | $7,333 |
| 75th percentile | $26,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $32,932 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Cal Poly Pomona.
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 Cal Poly Pomona.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 829 | $15,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 517 | $15,000 |
| Did not complete | 312 | $15,533 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $178.37/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Cal Poly Pomona.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 793 | $15,000 |
| No Stafford loan | 36 | $15,500 |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 656 | $15,000 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 173 | $16,705 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Cal Poly Pomona.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Cal Poly Pomona is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2953 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $12,500 |
| Middle income | $12,829 |
| High income | $15,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $13,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,000 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $13,000 |
| Independent students | $15,700 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Cal Poly Pomona.
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.
Did You Know?
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.