by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Davidson 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.
Among first-year students at Davidson, 9% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, at roughly $11,163 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federally funded loan is $4,961, or about 90.2% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at Davidson, 9% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $6,068 a year. That is 22.3% greater than the first-year federal average of $4,961.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,136 across two years and $24,272 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 9% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,068 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 165 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,001,235 |
The median student at Davidson borrows $16,511 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $16,511 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $18,688 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Davidson.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,500 |
| 75th percentile | $24,049 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $27,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Davidson.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Davidson.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 96 | $52,622 |
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 Davidson.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 85 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 11 | — |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 85 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 11 | — |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Davidson.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Davidson is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 131 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,657 |
| Middle income | $17,500 |
| High income | $17,479 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,600 |
| Continuing-generation students | $16,873 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Davidson.
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.
Important to Remember
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.