by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Cascadia College— 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.
At Cascadia College specifically, 7% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $7,673 each, across private and federal loan sources.
On the federal side, the average loan is $4,850, or about 88.2% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at Cascadia College, 4% finance part of their studies with federal loans, for a typical $5,890 each per year. It comes to 21.4% higher than the $4,850 freshmen take on.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $11,780 in two years and roughly $23,560 over a four-year span. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 4% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,890 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 38 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $223,813 |
The median student at Cascadia College borrows $5,215 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,215 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $6,368 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,891 |
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 Cascadia College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,500 |
| 25th percentile | $3,000 |
| 75th percentile | $9,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $14,125 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Cascadia College.
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 Cascadia College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 117 | $19,496 |
| Completed (graduates) | 21 | $20,000 |
| Did not complete | 96 | $19,147 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $237.82/mo.
Stafford loans are the federal direct-loan program most undergraduates use. The breakdown below separates borrowers who used Stafford loans from those who did not at Cascadia College.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 104 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 13 | — |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 19 | $20,923 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 98 | $18,787 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Cascadia College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Cascadia College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 6.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 230 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,000 |
| Middle income | $4,750 |
| High income | $4,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $5,300 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,000 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,372 |
| Independent students | $6,307 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Cascadia College.
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.
Worth Knowing
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.