by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Columbia Gorge Community College— 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.
Looking at the entering class at Columbia Gorge Community College, 11% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, for an average of $7,293 per student, private and federal loans combined.
Federal loans alone average $5,288, equal to roughly 96.1% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Across the full undergraduate body at Columbia Gorge Community College (freshmen included), 19% take out federal student loans, for a typical $6,616 annually. That amounts to 25.1% larger than the first-year federal average of $5,288.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $13,232 by year two and around $26,464 by the fourth year. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 19% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,616 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 98 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $648,351 |
The middle borrower at Columbia Gorge Community College owes $8,778 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,778 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $19,397 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,063 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Columbia Gorge Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,752 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $18,903 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $29,066 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Columbia Gorge Community College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Columbia Gorge Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 41 | $14,261 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Columbia Gorge Community College.
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 Columbia Gorge Community College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 11.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 15925 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $9,548 |
| High income | $4,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $7,741 |
| Continuing-generation students | $10,500 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,083 |
| Independent students | $10,500 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Columbia Gorge Community College.
Subsidized vs. 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.
Worth Knowing
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.