by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend University of Northwestern-St Paul, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Northwestern, 61% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $9,639 each, across private and federal loan sources.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,422, amounting to 98.6% 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 Northwestern, 58% take out federal student loans, borrowing on average $6,335 annually. That amounts to 16.8% higher than the $5,422 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,670 over two years and about $25,340 over a four-year span. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 58% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,335 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 860 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,448,429 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Northwestern carry a median federal debt of $17,750 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $17,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $21,325 |
| Students who withdrew | $10,250 |
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 Northwestern.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $8,500 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $34,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Northwestern.
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 Northwestern.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 326 | $25,080 |
| Completed (graduates) | 238 | $28,694 |
| Did not complete | 88 | $18,672 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $341.2/mo.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Northwestern.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Northwestern appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 792 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $17,537 |
| Middle income | $18,750 |
| High income | $17,356 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $18,396 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,356 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $17,164 |
| Independent students | $20,059 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Northwestern.
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
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.