by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for North-West College-Riverside— 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 NWC Riverside, 77% of first-year students take on loan debt, with a typical loan of $5,911 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $5,451, amounting to 99.1% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Counting every undergraduate at NWC Riverside, 73% take out federal student loans, with a mean of $7,125 in federal loans per year. It comes to 30.7% more than the first-year federal average of $5,451.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $14,250 in two years and roughly $28,500 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 | 73% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,125 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 835 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,949,153 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at NWC Riverside carry a median federal debt of $9,500 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $9,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,750 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at NWC Riverside.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,257 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $14,345 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $18,845 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at NWC Riverside.
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 NWC Riverside.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 488 | $5,956 |
| Completed (graduates) | 356 | $6,672 |
| Did not complete | 132 | $4,647 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $79.34/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at NWC Riverside.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 462 | $6,389 |
| No Stafford loan | 26 | $2,280 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 446 | $6,330 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 42 | $3,480 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. NWC Riverside.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for NWC Riverside appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 11.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 381 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $9,500 |
| High income | $5,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $9,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $9,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $9,500 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for NWC Riverside.
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.