by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Lake-Sumter State College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
At LSSC specifically, 9% of first-year students take on loan debt, averaging $3,875 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The typical federal loan comes to $3,749, which is 68.2% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Across the full undergraduate body at LSSC (freshmen included), 59% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $953 a year. That amounts to 74.6% under the $3,749 borrowed by freshmen.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $1,906 after two years and $3,812 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 | 59% |
| Average federal loan per year | $953 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,120 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,020,476 |
The median student at LSSC borrows $4,500 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $4,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $6,750 |
| Students who withdrew | $3,500 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at LSSC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $2,250 |
| 75th percentile | $8,570 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $16,001 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at LSSC.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at LSSC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 127 | $8,893 |
| Completed (graduates) | 24 | $8,097 |
| Did not complete | 103 | $9,186 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $96.28/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 LSSC.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 31 | $7,332 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 96 | $9,715 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for LSSC.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. Two-year cohort default-rate data for LSSC follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 8.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 193 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $4,500 |
| Middle income | $4,000 |
| High income | $5,475 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $4,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $4,118 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $3,782 |
| Independent students | $4,750 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for LSSC.
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?
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.