by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Lewis & Clark College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Lewis and Clark College specifically, 80% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $6,496 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,429, equal to roughly 98.7% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Looking at all undergraduates at Lewis and Clark College, freshmen included, 67% take out federal student loans, for a typical $6,499 each per year. It comes to 19.7% above the freshman federal average of $5,429.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $12,998 after two years and $25,996 after four. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 67% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,499 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,445 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $9,390,434 |
The middle borrower at Lewis and Clark College owes $13,644 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,644 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $19,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
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 Lewis and Clark College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,250 |
| 25th percentile | $8,750 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $34,000 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Lewis and Clark College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Lewis and Clark College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 281 | $29,026 |
| Completed (graduates) | 204 | $33,625 |
| Did not complete | 77 | $22,000 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $399.84/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 Lewis and Clark College.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 243 | $32,751 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 38 | $13,211 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Lewis and Clark College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Lewis and Clark College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 773 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $15,000 |
| Middle income | $13,804 |
| High income | $13,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $12,250 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $13,777 |
| Independent students | $12,732 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Lewis and Clark 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.
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.