by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Houghton University— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Houghton specifically, 64% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, averaging $8,237 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federal loan is $5,222, equal to roughly 94.9% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Across the full undergraduate body at Houghton (freshmen included), 62% finance part of their studies with federal loans, borrowing on average $6,143 per year. That amounts to 17.6% greater than the $5,222 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $12,286 by year two and around $24,572 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 | 62% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,143 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 471 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,893,278 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Houghton carry a median federal debt of $20,313 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $20,313 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $25,250 |
| Students who withdrew | $12,000 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Houghton.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $9,042 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $32,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Houghton.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Houghton.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 115 | $23,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 48 | $37,863 |
| Did not complete | 67 | $17,100 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $450.23/mo.
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Houghton.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Houghton appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 375 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $17,245 |
| Middle income | $21,625 |
| High income | $18,875 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $18,726 |
| Continuing-generation students | $20,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $20,500 |
| Independent students | $17,245 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Houghton.
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.
Did You Know?
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.