by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Los Angeles Southwest College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Los Angeles Southwest College, 2% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $9,402 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federal loan is $9,402. This meets or exceeds the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for 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 Los Angeles Southwest College, 2% rely on federal student loans toward their education, borrowing on average $8,526 per year. That is 9.3% under the freshman federal average of $9,402.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $17,052 in two years and roughly $34,104 by the fourth year. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 2% |
| Average federal loan per year | $8,526 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 62 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $528,583 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Los Angeles Southwest College carry a median federal debt of $10,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $10,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,875 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Los Angeles Southwest College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,000 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $10,250 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $16,850 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Los Angeles Southwest College.
The figures above count only the students own federal loans. Adding PLUS loans (borrowed by parents or graduate students) gives a fuller picture of total borrowing at Los Angeles Southwest College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 251 | $11,488 |
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 Los Angeles Southwest College.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 240 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 11 | — |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Los Angeles Southwest College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Los Angeles Southwest College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 33.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 3 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $10,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $9,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $10,500 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,550 |
| Independent students | $10,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Los Angeles Southwest College.
Subsidized vs. 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
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.