by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Elgin Community College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At ECC, 5% of first-year students take on loan debt, borrowing on average $4,057 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federal loan is $4,057, or about 73.8% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at ECC, 4% take out federal student loans, for a typical $4,514 annually. This works out to 11.3% greater than the $4,057 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $9,028 after two years and $18,056 after four. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 4% |
| Average federal loan per year | $4,514 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 238 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,074,305 |
The median student at ECC borrows $4,790 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $4,790 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $7,390 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,351 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for ECC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,300 |
| 25th percentile | $2,088 |
| 75th percentile | $7,871 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $13,545 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at ECC.
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 ECC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 607 | $18,952 |
| Completed (graduates) | 90 | $20,782 |
| Did not complete | 517 | $18,000 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $247.12/mo.
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 ECC.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 582 | $19,184 |
| No Stafford loan | 25 | $10,818 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 106 | $16,645 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 501 | $19,187 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at ECC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for ECC is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 15.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 869 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $5,153 |
| Middle income | $4,430 |
| High income | $4,981 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $4,722 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,179 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,400 |
| Independent students | $5,518 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for ECC.
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
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.