by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Illinois Wesleyan University, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Illinois Wesleyan specifically, 73% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, averaging $8,675 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,403, or about 98.2% 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.
Counting every undergraduate at Illinois Wesleyan, 64% rely on federal student loans toward their education, with a mean of $6,628 in federal loans per year. This is 22.7% larger than the $5,403 typical freshmen borrow.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $13,256 across two years and $26,512 after four. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 64% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,628 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 998 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $6,614,531 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Illinois Wesleyan carry a median federal debt of $23,221 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $23,221 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,283 |
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 Wesleyan.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $16,254 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $35,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Illinois Wesleyan.
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 Wesleyan.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 228 | $35,520 |
| Completed (graduates) | 169 | $47,679 |
| Did not complete | 59 | $22,500 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $566.95/mo.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Illinois Wesleyan.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Illinois Wesleyan follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 392 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $22,250 |
| Middle income | $24,738 |
| High income | $22,624 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $23,250 |
| Continuing-generation students | $22,750 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Illinois Wesleyan.
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.
Worth Knowing
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.