by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Cornell College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
For incoming students at Cornell College, 69% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $8,269 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,787. That is at or past the $5,500 federal first-year limit for the typical dependent freshman. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Across the full undergraduate body at Cornell College (freshmen included), 66% finance part of their studies with federal loans, at an average of $6,861 a year. This works out to 18.6% more than the freshman federal average of $5,787.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $13,722 by year two and around $27,444 across a four-year program. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 66% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,861 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 707 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $4,850,856 |
The median student at Cornell College borrows $21,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $21,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,250 |
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 Cornell College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $9,500 |
| 75th percentile | $28,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $35,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Cornell College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Cornell College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 106 | $26,407 |
| Completed (graduates) | 60 | $46,564 |
| Did not complete | 46 | $15,682 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $553.7/mo.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Cornell College.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Cornell College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 274 |
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 | $14,000 |
| Middle income | $21,750 |
| High income | $21,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $23,125 |
| Continuing-generation students | $20,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Cornell College.
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
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.