by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Ferris State University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at Ferris, 49% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, borrowing on average $7,014 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
Federal loans alone average $4,944, which is 89.9% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
For undergraduates overall at Ferris, 48% finance part of their studies with federal loans, for a typical $6,739 annually. This is 36.3% above the freshman federal average of $4,944.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $13,478 over two years and about $26,956 after four. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 48% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,739 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 3,875 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $26,115,404 |
The median student at Ferris borrows $15,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $21,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,373 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Ferris.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,750 |
| 25th percentile | $7,500 |
| 75th percentile | $28,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $37,405 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Ferris.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Ferris.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1306 | $12,789 |
| Completed (graduates) | 816 | $14,849 |
| Did not complete | 490 | $10,040 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $176.57/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Ferris.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1295 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 11 | — |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1184 | $12,799 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 122 | $12,649 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Ferris.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Ferris appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 7.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 3874 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $15,213 |
| Middle income | $16,195 |
| High income | $15,250 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,727 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,010 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,000 |
| Independent students | $18,247 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Ferris.
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
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.