by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Cecil College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Cecil College, 12% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $4,620 per student, private and federal loans combined.
Federal loans alone average $4,620, or about 84.0% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Looking at all undergraduates at Cecil College, freshmen included, 11% finance part of their studies with federal loans, borrowing on average $5,202 per year. That amounts to 12.6% greater than the $4,620 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $10,404 across two years and $20,808 after four. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 11% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,202 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 157 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $816,759 |
The middle borrower at Cecil College owes $8,250 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,250 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,536 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,250 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Cecil College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,036 |
| 25th percentile | $3,872 |
| 75th percentile | $11,245 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $19,260 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Cecil College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Cecil College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 129 | $16,207 |
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 Cecil College.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 41 | $13,842 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 88 | $19,185 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Cecil College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Cecil College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 15.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 204 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $8,095 |
| High income | $8,113 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $8,250 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,792 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $6,500 |
| Independent students | $10,428 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Cecil College.
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
Unsubsidized federal student loans accrue interest every month — even while you are still enrolled. Unless you pay that interest as it builds, the balance you owe at graduation can be noticeably higher than the amount you originally borrowed.
Important to Remember
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.