by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Lewis-Clark State College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Lewis - Clark State College, 45% of first-year students take on loan debt, averaging $5,512 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,694, equal to roughly 85.3% 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.
For undergraduates overall at Lewis - Clark State College, 42% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, borrowing on average $6,603 annually. That amounts to 40.7% above the $4,694 freshmen take on.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $13,206 across two years and $26,412 over a four-year span. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 42% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,603 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 980 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $6,471,018 |
The middle borrower at Lewis - Clark State College owes $10,989 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $10,989 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $18,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,000 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Lewis - Clark State College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,750 |
| 25th percentile | $4,750 |
| 75th percentile | $22,374 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $33,500 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Lewis - Clark State College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Lewis - Clark State College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 199 | $10,671 |
| Completed (graduates) | 90 | $12,624 |
| Did not complete | 109 | $10,160 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $150.11/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Lewis - Clark State College.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 151 | $10,574 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 48 | $10,827 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Lewis - Clark State College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Lewis - Clark State College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 8.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1086 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
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 | $11,976 |
| Middle income | $10,908 |
| High income | $9,736 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $10,832 |
| Continuing-generation students | $11,750 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $9,580 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Lewis - Clark State College.
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.