by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend College of the Desert— 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 College of the Desert, 1% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $9,050 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $7,050. This is at or above the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap that applies to 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 College of the Desert, 1% borrow through federal student loan programs, for a typical $7,835 annually. It comes to 11.1% larger than the first-year federal average of $7,050.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $15,670 by year two and around $31,340 across a four-year program. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 1% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,835 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 108 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $846,204 |
The middle borrower at College of the Desert owes $5,261 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,261 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,625 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for College of the Desert.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,500 |
| 25th percentile | $2,058 |
| 75th percentile | $6,875 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $11,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at College of the Desert.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for College of the Desert.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 451 | $7,879 |
| Completed (graduates) | 79 | $8,486 |
| Did not complete | 372 | $7,796 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $100.91/mo.
Stafford loans are the federal direct-loan program most undergraduates use. The breakdown below separates borrowers who used Stafford loans from those who did not at College of the Desert.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 434 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 17 | — |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for College of the Desert.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for College of the Desert is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 14.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 92 |
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.
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $2,700 |
| Independent students | $6,880 |
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
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.