by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Mountain Gateway Community College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At DSLCC, 5% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, at roughly $5,444 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,444, equal to roughly 99.0% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at DSLCC, 11% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, borrowing on average $6,009 a year. That is 10.4% higher than the $5,444 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $12,018 after two years and $24,036 over a four-year span. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 11% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,009 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 51 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $306,452 |
The middle borrower at DSLCC owes $6,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,182 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,766 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 DSLCC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,313 |
| 25th percentile | $2,750 |
| 75th percentile | $12,581 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $19,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at DSLCC.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at DSLCC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 58 | $9,860 |
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 DSLCC.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 20 | $9,577 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 38 | $10,241 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. DSLCC.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for DSLCC is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 10.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 102 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $8,288 |
| Middle income | $5,685 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,753 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,500 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $9,057 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at DSLCC.
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.
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.