by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend George Fox University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at GFU, 67% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $8,697 per student, private and federal loans combined.
Federal loans alone average $5,427, representing 98.7% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Across the full undergraduate body at GFU (freshmen included), 65% finance part of their studies with federal loans, for a typical $6,809 in federal loans per year. It comes to 25.5% higher than the freshman federal average of $5,427.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $13,618 across two years and $27,236 across a four-year program. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 65% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,809 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,625 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $11,065,357 |
The median student at GFU borrows $19,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $24,250 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,714 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 GFU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,250 |
| 25th percentile | $8,294 |
| 75th percentile | $26,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $29,997 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at GFU.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for GFU.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 581 | $27,185 |
| Completed (graduates) | 398 | $33,547 |
| Did not complete | 183 | $19,465 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $398.91/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 GFU.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 528 | $28,570 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 53 | $12,484 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at GFU.
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 GFU follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 972 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $19,629 |
| Middle income | $19,000 |
| High income | $19,750 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,500 |
| Independent students | $20,687 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for GFU.
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
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.