by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Kirkwood Community College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at Kirkwood Community College, 36% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $4,863 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,560, equal to roughly 82.9% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. 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 Kirkwood Community College, 36% borrow through federal student loan programs, for a typical $5,198 each per year. This is 14.0% greater than the $4,560 freshmen take on.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $10,396 across two years and $20,792 by the fourth year. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 36% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,198 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,653 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $13,790,883 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Kirkwood Community College carry a median federal debt of $7,591 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $7,591 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $12,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Kirkwood Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,000 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $13,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $24,010 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Kirkwood Community College.
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 Kirkwood Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1005 | $14,150 |
| Completed (graduates) | 225 | $13,856 |
| Did not complete | 780 | $14,204 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $164.76/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Kirkwood Community College.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 990 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 15 | — |
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 500 | $10,381 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 505 | $17,692 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Kirkwood Community College.
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 Kirkwood Community College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 19.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 5876 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
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 | $8,950 |
| Middle income | $6,750 |
| High income | $6,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $7,857 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,000 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $6,000 |
| Independent students | $10,479 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Kirkwood Community College.
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.
Did You Know?
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.