by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Carleton College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
Looking at the entering class at Carleton, 41% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, averaging $5,020 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The typical federal loan comes to $3,973, equal to roughly 72.2% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year 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.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at Carleton, 44% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $5,045 annually. It comes to 27.0% above the $3,973 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $10,090 by year two and around $20,180 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 | 44% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,045 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 898 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $4,530,213 |
The median student at Carleton borrows $15,960 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,960 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $16,750 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,667 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Carleton.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $6,000 |
| 25th percentile | $12,000 |
| 75th percentile | $23,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $27,121 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Carleton.
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 Carleton.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 46 | $31,271 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Carleton.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Carleton follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 216 |
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 | $14,178 |
| Middle income | $15,167 |
| High income | $16,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $14,669 |
| Continuing-generation students | $16,250 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Carleton.
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.
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.