by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Kentucky Wesleyan College: 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 Wesleyan, 59% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, averaging $7,487 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The average federal loan is $6,264. That is at or past the $5,500 federal first-year limit for the 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 Wesleyan, 64% take out federal student loans, averaging $7,775 a year. It comes to 24.1% more than the $6,264 freshmen take on.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $15,550 in two years and roughly $31,100 over a four-year span. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 64% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,775 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 509 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,957,565 |
The middle borrower at Wesleyan owes $11,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $11,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $23,250 |
| 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 Wesleyan.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $23,250 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,996 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at 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 Wesleyan.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 122 | $17,801 |
| Completed (graduates) | 62 | $24,773 |
| Did not complete | 60 | $11,513 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $294.58/mo.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Wesleyan.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Wesleyan is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 7.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 294 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $9,126 |
| High income | $13,964 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $11,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,163 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $12,000 |
| Independent students | $8,978 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Wesleyan.
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.
Important to Remember
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.