by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Montreat College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Montreat College specifically, 70% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, borrowing on average $7,371 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federal loan is $5,137, or about 93.4% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Across the full undergraduate body at Montreat College (freshmen included), 69% take out federal student loans, borrowing on average $6,895 in federal loans per year. That amounts to 34.2% larger than the $5,137 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $13,790 in two years and roughly $27,580 after four. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 69% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,895 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 514 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,544,196 |
The middle borrower at Montreat College owes $13,875 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,875 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $25,813 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,471 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Montreat College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $39,000 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Montreat College.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Montreat College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 173 | $17,733 |
| Completed (graduates) | 56 | $23,477 |
| Did not complete | 117 | $15,000 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $279.17/mo.
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Montreat 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 Montreat College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 495 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
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 | $16,584 |
| Middle income | $14,125 |
| High income | $12,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $12,785 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,000 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $12,000 |
| Independent students | $22,924 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Montreat College.
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.
Important to Remember
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.