by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Chattanooga College Medical Dental and & Technical Careers— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Chattanooga College MDTC, 84% of first-year students take on loan debt, borrowing on average $4,444 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federally funded loan is $4,444, which is 80.8% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Across the full undergraduate body at Chattanooga College MDTC (freshmen included), 86% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, borrowing on average $5,438 a year. That amounts to 22.4% greater than the first-year federal average of $4,444.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $10,876 over two years and about $21,752 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 | 86% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,438 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 265 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,441,135 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Chattanooga College MDTC carry a median federal debt of $5,457 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,457 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $7,891 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,036 |
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 Chattanooga College MDTC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,027 |
| 25th percentile | $4,144 |
| 75th percentile | $18,797 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $24,460 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Chattanooga College MDTC.
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 Chattanooga College MDTC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 33 | $6,848 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Chattanooga College MDTC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Chattanooga College MDTC is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 10.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 348 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $5,548 |
| Middle income | $5,392 |
| High income | $4,566 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $5,481 |
| Continuing-generation students | $4,782 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,583 |
| Independent students | $5,975 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Chattanooga College MDTC.
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.