by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Mohave Community 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 MCC, 10% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, at roughly $6,473 per student, private and federal loans combined.
Federal loans alone average $6,473. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap for a typical dependent student. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
For undergraduates overall at MCC, 11% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $5,549 per year. That amounts to 14.3% lower than the freshman federal average of $6,473.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $11,098 over two years and about $22,196 over a four-year span. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 11% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,549 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 307 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,703,515 |
The median student at MCC borrows $8,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,700 |
| Students who withdrew | $6,682 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for MCC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $16,657 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $28,799 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at MCC.
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 MCC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 110 | $8,793 |
| Completed (graduates) | 28 | $9,260 |
| Did not complete | 82 | $8,793 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $110.11/mo.
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 MCC.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 34 | $7,369 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 76 | $9,961 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for MCC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for MCC appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 24.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1074 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $5,938 |
| High income | $4,125 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $8,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $9,025 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,992 |
| Independent students | $9,414 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for MCC.
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
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.