by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Lake Washington Institute of Technology— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at LWTech, 5% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, with a typical loan of $7,367 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $6,108. This is at or above the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap that applies to the typical dependent freshman. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Counting every undergraduate at LWTech, 7% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $7,481 annually. That amounts to 22.5% greater than the $6,108 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $14,962 by year two and around $29,924 over four years. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 7% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,481 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 162 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,211,951 |
The median student at LWTech borrows $10,356 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $10,356 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $15,047 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,805 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 LWTech.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,453 |
| 25th percentile | $4,262 |
| 75th percentile | $18,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $25,141 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at LWTech.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at LWTech.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 162 | $13,542 |
| Completed (graduates) | 43 | $11,820 |
| Did not complete | 119 | $14,354 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $140.55/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 LWTech.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 43 | $17,904 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 119 | $12,788 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for LWTech.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for LWTech appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 10.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 511 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $10,252 |
| Middle income | $11,000 |
| High income | $9,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $10,334 |
| Continuing-generation students | $10,378 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $6,500 |
| Independent students | $12,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at LWTech.
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.
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.