by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Mount Saint Mary College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at Mount Saint Mary, 74% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $9,832 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $5,199, or about 94.5% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Looking at all undergraduates at Mount Saint Mary, freshmen included, 67% finance part of their studies with federal loans, at an average of $7,056 per year. That amounts to 35.7% higher than the $5,199 freshmen take on.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $14,112 over two years and about $28,224 after four. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 67% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,056 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 848 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,983,736 |
The median student at Mount Saint Mary borrows $22,250 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $22,250 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,007 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,500 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Mount Saint Mary.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,250 |
| 25th percentile | $9,166 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $37,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Mount Saint Mary.
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 Mount Saint Mary.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 554 | $31,765 |
| Completed (graduates) | 333 | $46,295 |
| Did not complete | 221 | $20,757 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $550.5/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 Saint Mary.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 518 | $34,238 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 36 | $16,752 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Mount Saint Mary.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Mount Saint Mary is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 764 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $21,334 |
| Middle income | $22,100 |
| High income | $22,543 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $21,499 |
| Continuing-generation students | $24,690 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $21,500 |
| Independent students | $24,525 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Mount Saint Mary.
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
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.