by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Modesto Junior 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.
At MJC specifically, 0% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, averaging $5,423 per student, private and federal loans combined.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,423, or about 98.6% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. 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 MJC, freshmen included, 0% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, with a mean of $5,888 in federal loans per year. That is 8.6% more than the $5,423 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $11,776 by year two and around $23,552 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 | 0% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,888 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 48 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $282,628 |
The median student at MJC borrows $3,375 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $3,375 |
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at MJC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 759 | $10,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 111 | $8,000 |
| Did not complete | 648 | $10,143 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $95.13/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at MJC.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 724 | $10,000 |
| No Stafford loan | 35 | $9,608 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for MJC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for MJC appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 0 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
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.