by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Detroit Business Institute-Downriver— 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.
At DBI Downriver specifically, 67% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $6,516 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federal loan is $6,516. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a typical dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Counting every undergraduate at DBI Downriver, 78% borrow through federal student loan programs, averaging $6,764 per year. That amounts to 3.8% more than the first-year federal average of $6,516.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $13,528 in two years and roughly $27,056 over four years. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 78% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,764 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 145 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $980,806 |
The median student at DBI Downriver borrows $13,583 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,583 |
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for DBI Downriver.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $5,118 |
| 75th percentile | $13,583 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at DBI Downriver.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for DBI Downriver follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 6.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 104 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Subsidized vs. 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.