by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Illinois State 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.
Looking at the entering class at Illinois State, 50% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, averaging $7,564 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,040, amounting to 91.6% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
For undergraduates overall at Illinois State, 43% finance part of their studies with federal loans, with a mean of $6,066 in federal loans per year. It comes to 20.4% higher than the $5,040 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $12,132 in two years and roughly $24,264 over a four-year span. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 43% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,066 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 7,946 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $48,197,695 |
The median student at Illinois State borrows $15,750 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $20,482 |
| 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 Illinois State.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $8,000 |
| 75th percentile | $26,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,920 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Illinois State.
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 Illinois State.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 2486 | $24,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1717 | $28,767 |
| Did not complete | 769 | $19,536 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $342.07/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 Illinois State.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 2409 | $24,160 |
| No Stafford loan | 77 | $21,457 |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 2221 | $24,597 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 265 | $20,684 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Illinois State.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Illinois State is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 3966 |
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 | $16,500 |
| Middle income | $15,200 |
| High income | $15,845 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $16,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,012 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,500 |
| Independent students | $19,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Illinois State.
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.
Worth Knowing
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.