by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Mount Mary University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at Mount Mary, 71% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, averaging $5,614 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $5,067, amounting to 92.1% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Counting every undergraduate at Mount Mary, 70% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $6,448 a year. That is 27.3% higher than the $5,067 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $12,896 over two years and about $25,792 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 | 70% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,448 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 491 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,165,839 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Mount Mary carry a median federal debt of $19,000 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $25,288 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,450 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Mount Mary.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $8,478 |
| 75th percentile | $31,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $42,750 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at Mount Mary.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Mount Mary.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 145 | $17,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 99 | $18,000 |
| Did not complete | 46 | $15,314 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $214.04/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 Mount Mary.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 132 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 13 | — |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Mount Mary.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Mount Mary appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 471 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $20,000 |
| Middle income | $17,500 |
| High income | $18,695 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $18,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $21,109 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $16,500 |
| Independent students | $27,953 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Mount Mary.
The Difference Between Subsidized and 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
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.