by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Georgetown University, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Georgetown, 19% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, at roughly $9,840 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $3,464, representing 63.0% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
For undergraduates overall at Georgetown, 19% borrow through federal student loan programs, for a typical $4,700 a year. That amounts to 35.7% greater than the first-year federal average of $3,464.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $9,400 across two years and $18,800 over a four-year span. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 19% |
| Average federal loan per year | $4,700 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,410 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $6,626,838 |
The median student at Georgetown borrows $13,500 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $15,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,000 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Georgetown.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,869 |
| 25th percentile | $7,270 |
| 75th percentile | $19,810 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $25,500 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Georgetown.
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 Georgetown.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1331 | $31,162 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1090 | $33,944 |
| Did not complete | 241 | $23,814 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $403.63/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 Georgetown.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1299 | $30,844 |
| No Stafford loan | 32 | $71,519 |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1068 | $33,106 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 263 | $26,391 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Georgetown.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Georgetown appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 3079 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $10,000 |
| Middle income | $13,500 |
| High income | $14,750 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $14,750 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $13,500 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Georgetown.
Subsidized vs. 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.
Did You Know?
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.