by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Northwest Shoals Community College— 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.
Looking at the entering class at NW-SCC, 62% of first-year students take on loan debt, for an average of $2,212 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federally funded loan is $2,212, amounting to 40.2% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. 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 NW-SCC, 52% take out federal student loans, at an average of $2,703 each per year. It comes to 22.2% greater than the first-year federal average of $2,212.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $5,406 over two years and about $10,812 across a four-year program. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 52% |
| Average federal loan per year | $2,703 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 995 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,689,112 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at NW-SCC carry a median federal debt of $5,500 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $10,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,250 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for NW-SCC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $3,250 |
| 75th percentile | $11,950 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $22,500 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at NW-SCC.
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 NW-SCC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 103 | $14,387 |
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 NW-SCC.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 47 | $13,140 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 56 | $18,075 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. NW-SCC.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for NW-SCC appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 18.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 821 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $5,500 |
| Middle income | $5,500 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $5,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,250 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $7,729 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for NW-SCC.
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
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.