by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Lex La-Ray Technical Center: 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.
Looking at the entering class at LLRTC, 50% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $7,000 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $7,000. 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.
For undergraduates overall at LLRTC, 41% take out federal student loans, borrowing on average $9,083 annually. This works out to 29.8% more than the $7,000 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $18,166 over two years and about $36,332 over a four-year span. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 41% |
| Average federal loan per year | $9,083 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 9 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $81,750 |
The middle borrower at LLRTC owes $13,889 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,889 |
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for LLRTC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $8,736 |
| 75th percentile | $14,727 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at LLRTC.
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 LLRTC appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 20.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 26 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
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.
Worth Knowing
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.