by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Emerson College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
For incoming students at Emerson, 45% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $12,362 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federal loan is $5,351, or about 97.3% 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.
Across the full undergraduate body at Emerson (freshmen included), 43% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $6,531 in federal loans per year. It comes to 22.1% above the $5,351 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $13,062 after two years and $26,124 by the fourth year. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 43% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,531 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,800 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $11,755,405 |
The median student at Emerson borrows $19,000 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $23,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Emerson.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $12,000 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $29,125 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Emerson.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Emerson.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 556 | $59,377 |
| Completed (graduates) | 411 | $69,996 |
| Did not complete | 145 | $39,500 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $832.33/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Emerson.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 527 | $60,867 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 29 | $33,453 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Emerson.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Emerson follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 995 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $16,375 |
| Middle income | $19,500 |
| High income | $18,988 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,782 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,354 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Emerson.
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.
Did You Know?
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.