by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Johns Hopkins University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Johns Hopkins specifically, 11% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $11,969 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,647, or about 84.5% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. 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 Johns Hopkins, 10% rely on federal student loans toward their education, averaging $5,695 in federal loans per year. That amounts to 22.6% higher than the freshman federal average of $4,647.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $11,390 by year two and around $22,780 after four. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 10% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,695 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 567 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,229,062 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Johns Hopkins carry a median federal debt of $9,000 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $9,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $10,250 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,750 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Johns Hopkins.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,200 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $20,300 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $27,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Johns Hopkins.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Johns Hopkins.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 2587 | $27,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1736 | $29,048 |
| Did not complete | 851 | $24,500 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $345.41/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 Johns Hopkins.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 2522 | $26,585 |
| No Stafford loan | 65 | $41,825 |
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1593 | $28,510 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 994 | $25,571 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Johns Hopkins.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Johns Hopkins is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2747 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $7,395 |
| Middle income | $8,297 |
| High income | $10,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $8,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $9,000 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $9,538 |
| Independent students | $8,104 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Johns Hopkins.
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.
Important to Remember
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.