by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Northwest College School of Beauty - Tualatin: 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 Tualatin specifically, 48% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, for an average of $6,719 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The typical federal loan comes to $6,719. This is at or above the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap that applies to the typical dependent freshman. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
For undergraduates overall at NWC Tualatin, 37% take out federal student loans, averaging $7,714 in federal loans per year. It comes to 14.8% more than the freshman federal average of $6,719.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $15,428 over two years and about $30,856 across a four-year program. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 37% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,714 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 26 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $200,560 |
The middle borrower at NWC Tualatin 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 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 NWC Tualatin.
| 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 Tualatin.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for NWC Tualatin.
| 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 Tualatin.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. Two-year cohort default-rate data for NWC Tualatin appears below.
| 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.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
By Family Income
| 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 Tualatin.
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
Worth Knowing
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.