by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Denmark Technical College— 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.
For incoming students at DTC, 16% of first-year students take on loan debt, with a typical loan of $5,331 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,331, or about 96.9% 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.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at DTC, 14% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, borrowing on average $2,801 annually. It comes to 47.5% lower than the first-year federal average of $5,331.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $5,602 after two years and $11,204 over four years. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 14% |
| Average federal loan per year | $2,801 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 70 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $196,100 |
The median student at DTC borrows $6,750 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $15,250 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
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 DTC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $2,750 |
| 75th percentile | $8,729 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $15,550 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at DTC.
The figures above count only the students own federal loans. Adding PLUS loans (borrowed by parents or graduate students) gives a fuller picture of total borrowing at DTC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 59 | $6,000 |
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at DTC.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 42 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 17 | — |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for DTC.
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 DTC is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 23.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 396 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,460 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,625 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $8,250 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at DTC.
The Difference Between 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
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.