by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Kettering 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.
Looking at the entering class at Kettering, 60% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, averaging $11,736 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,311, which is 96.6% 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.
Counting every undergraduate at Kettering, 46% take out federal student loans, at an average of $6,409 each per year. That amounts to 20.7% larger than the $5,311 freshmen take on.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $12,818 across two years and $25,636 over a four-year span. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 46% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,409 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 584 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,742,863 |
The middle borrower at Kettering owes $26,563 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $26,563 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $23,250 |
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 Kettering.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,000 |
| 25th percentile | $9,500 |
| 75th percentile | $31,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $37,667 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Kettering.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Kettering.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 303 | $36,102 |
| Completed (graduates) | 187 | $35,000 |
| Did not complete | 116 | $40,441 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $416.19/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Kettering.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 264 | $41,912 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 39 | $14,588 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Kettering.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Kettering follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 546 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $28,000 |
| Middle income | $27,000 |
| High income | $26,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $27,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $24,250 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $26,498 |
| Independent students | $31,093 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Kettering.
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
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.