by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Charter College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at Charter College, 86% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, borrowing on average $9,938 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $9,819. This meets or exceeds the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent freshman. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Across the full undergraduate body at Charter College (freshmen included), 67% borrow through federal student loan programs, averaging $8,518 annually. This works out to 13.2% lower than the $9,819 freshmen take on.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $17,036 after two years and $34,072 over four years. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 67% |
| Average federal loan per year | $8,518 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,532 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $13,049,902 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Charter College carry a median federal debt of $11,884 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $11,884 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $14,176 |
| Students who withdrew | $6,334 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Charter College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,167 |
| 25th percentile | $6,334 |
| 75th percentile | $14,875 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $18,812 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Charter 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 Charter College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 114 | $8,232 |
| Completed (graduates) | 69 | $9,895 |
| Did not complete | 45 | $7,000 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $117.66/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Charter College.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 103 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 11 | — |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Charter College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Charter College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 10.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1499 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
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 | $12,051 |
| Middle income | $12,000 |
| High income | $9,750 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,668 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,667 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $9,500 |
| Independent students | $13,227 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Charter College.
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.
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.