by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Northwest College School of Beauty - Clackamas: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At NWC Clackamas specifically, 76% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $6,696 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $6,696. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap for a typical 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 NWC Clackamas, 59% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $6,778 in federal loans per year. It comes to 1.2% more than the $6,696 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $13,556 across two years and $27,112 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 59% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,778 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 43 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $291,469 |
The middle borrower at NWC Clackamas owes $6,333 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,333 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $7,564 |
| 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 Clackamas.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,666 |
| 25th percentile | $5,971 |
| 75th percentile | $17,441 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $26,945 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at NWC Clackamas.
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 Clackamas.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 37 | $6,477 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at NWC Clackamas.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for NWC Clackamas follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 13.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 267 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,333 |
| Middle income | $7,983 |
| High income | $6,333 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,333 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,333 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $6,333 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for NWC Clackamas.
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.
Worth Knowing
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.