by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Florida Gulf Coast University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At FGCU specifically, 29% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, borrowing on average $10,899 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The average federal loan is $7,946. 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.
Looking at all undergraduates at FGCU, freshmen included, 25% rely on federal student loans toward their education, with a mean of $7,875 in federal loans per year. This works out to 0.9% smaller than the $7,946 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $15,750 by year two and around $31,500 across a four-year program. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 25% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,875 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 3,499 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $27,555,126 |
The middle borrower at FGCU owes $11,999 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $11,999 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $17,622 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 FGCU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,000 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $23,375 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at FGCU.
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 FGCU.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 885 | $17,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 449 | $18,946 |
| Did not complete | 436 | $15,008 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $225.29/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at FGCU.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 852 | $17,495 |
| No Stafford loan | 33 | $14,890 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 748 | $18,390 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 137 | $12,675 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. FGCU.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for FGCU appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1487 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $11,025 |
| Middle income | $11,000 |
| High income | $12,050 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,658 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,000 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $11,327 |
| Independent students | $13,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at FGCU.
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.
Important to Remember
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.