by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Chattahoochee Valley Community 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.
Looking at the entering class at CVCC, 32% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $5,960 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $5,960. That is at or past the $5,500 federal first-year limit for the typical dependent freshman. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Counting every undergraduate at CVCC, 43% rely on federal student loans toward their education, with a mean of $6,517 each per year. It comes to 9.3% larger than the $5,960 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $13,034 by year two and around $26,068 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 43% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,517 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 446 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,906,477 |
The middle borrower at CVCC owes $5,900 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,900 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $10,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
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 CVCC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,250 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $12,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $19,179 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at CVCC.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for CVCC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 72 | $8,990 |
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at CVCC.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 25 | $7,035 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 47 | $10,675 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. CVCC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for CVCC follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 9.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 186 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,250 |
| Middle income | $5,500 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,367 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,469 |
| Independent students | $9,319 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for CVCC.
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.
Important to Remember
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.