by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Great Bay Community College: 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 Great Bay Community College, 27% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, with a typical loan of $4,838 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $4,761, representing 86.6% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Counting every undergraduate at Great Bay Community College, 27% finance part of their studies with federal loans, with a mean of $6,251 per year. That amounts to 31.3% larger than the $4,761 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $12,502 by year two and around $25,004 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 27% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,251 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 338 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,112,984 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Great Bay Community College carry a median federal debt of $7,466 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $7,466 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $13,828 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
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 Great Bay Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $15,341 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $24,083 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Great Bay Community College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Great Bay Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 196 | $12,682 |
| Completed (graduates) | 36 | $13,497 |
| Did not complete | 160 | $12,336 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $160.49/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at Great Bay Community College.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 89 | $12,012 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 107 | $14,865 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Great Bay Community College.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Great Bay Community College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 7.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 405 |
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 | $8,037 |
| Middle income | $7,125 |
| High income | $7,053 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $7,988 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,545 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,847 |
| Independent students | $9,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Great Bay Community College.
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
Unsubsidized federal student loans accrue interest every month — even while you are still enrolled. Unless you pay that interest as it builds, the balance you owe at graduation can be noticeably higher than the amount you originally borrowed.
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.