by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for University of Silicon Valley: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Cogswell, 54% of first-year students take on loan debt, for an average of $6,261 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federal loan is $6,225. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a typical dependent student. 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 Cogswell, freshmen included, 68% borrow through federal student loan programs, at an average of $9,023 in federal loans per year. It comes to 44.9% higher than the freshman federal average of $6,225.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $18,046 in two years and roughly $36,092 across a four-year program. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 68% |
| Average federal loan per year | $9,023 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 255 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,300,908 |
The median student at Cogswell borrows $18,334 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $18,334 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $31,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,500 |
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 Cogswell.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $8,250 |
| 75th percentile | $31,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $44,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Cogswell.
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 Cogswell.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 180 | $27,341 |
| Completed (graduates) | 83 | $49,529 |
| Did not complete | 97 | $17,262 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $588.95/mo.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Cogswell.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Cogswell follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 9.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 42 |
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 | $15,750 |
| Middle income | $17,522 |
| High income | $20,751 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $25,124 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $17,863 |
| Independent students | $18,852 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Cogswell.
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.
Worth Knowing
Declaring bankruptcy does not erase federal student loan debt. If you stop paying, the federal government can garnish a portion of your wages until the loans are repaid.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.