by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Lasell University: 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.
Among first-year students at Lasell, 74% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, for an average of $9,803 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federal loan is $5,626. This meets or exceeds the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing 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.
For undergraduates overall at Lasell, 74% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $6,704 per year. This works out to 19.2% higher than the freshman federal average of $5,626.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $13,408 by year two and around $26,816 after four. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 74% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,704 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 848 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,684,987 |
The middle borrower at Lasell owes $21,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $21,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,255 |
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 Lasell.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $9,500 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Lasell.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Lasell.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 414 | $31,547 |
| Completed (graduates) | 286 | $40,506 |
| Did not complete | 128 | $17,784 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $481.66/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 Lasell.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 379 | $32,470 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 35 | $14,000 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Lasell.
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 Lasell is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 456 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $19,500 |
| Middle income | $21,980 |
| High income | $21,500 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $21,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $21,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $21,500 |
| Independent students | $18,750 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Lasell.
The Difference Between 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.