by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Merritt College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Merritt College, 2% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, averaging $6,434 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federal loan is $6,434. This is at or above the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap that applies to 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.
Counting every undergraduate at Merritt College, 1% rely on federal student loans toward their education, borrowing on average $7,333 each per year. That amounts to 14.0% greater than the freshman federal average of $6,434.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $14,666 by year two and around $29,332 by the fourth year. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 1% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,333 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 40 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $293,309 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Merritt College carry a median federal debt of $9,500 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $9,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Merritt College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,000 |
| 25th percentile | $4,500 |
| 75th percentile | $16,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $23,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Merritt College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Merritt College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 394 | $15,728 |
| Completed (graduates) | 26 | $14,865 |
| Did not complete | 368 | $15,828 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $176.76/mo.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Merritt College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Merritt College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 18.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 150 |
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 | $9,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $6,000 |
| Independent students | $10,475 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Merritt College.
Subsidized vs. 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.