by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend College of the Atlantic: 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 College of the Atlantic, 64% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, averaging $10,138 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $7,408. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a typical dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Counting every undergraduate at College of the Atlantic, 53% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $5,868 a year. This works out to 20.8% lower than the $7,408 typical freshmen borrow.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $11,736 across two years and $23,472 after four. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 53% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,868 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 191 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,120,824 |
The median student at College of the Atlantic borrows $17,723 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $17,723 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $25,050 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,972 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 College of the Atlantic.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,083 |
| 25th percentile | $7,000 |
| 75th percentile | $24,693 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $28,135 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at College of the Atlantic.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at College of the Atlantic.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. Two-year cohort default-rate data for College of the Atlantic is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 74 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $21,500 |
| Middle income | $18,809 |
| High income | $14,833 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $17,553 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,723 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at College of the Atlantic.
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.
Did You Know?
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.