by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Northwood University— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at Northwood, 56% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $9,407 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $5,294, or about 96.3% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Looking at all undergraduates at Northwood, freshmen included, 47% finance part of their studies with federal loans, at an average of $10,577 in federal loans per year. This is 99.8% higher than the $5,294 freshmen take on.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $21,154 over two years and about $42,308 over a four-year span. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 47% |
| Average federal loan per year | $10,577 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 891 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $9,424,547 |
The middle borrower at Northwood owes $18,750 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $18,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $20,842 |
| Students who withdrew | $12,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Northwood.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,975 |
| 25th percentile | $9,250 |
| 75th percentile | $28,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $40,137 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Northwood.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Northwood.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 353 | $19,485 |
| Completed (graduates) | 238 | $21,265 |
| Did not complete | 115 | $17,610 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $252.86/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Northwood.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 318 | $20,818 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 35 | $13,147 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Northwood.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Northwood is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 7.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1694 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $17,500 |
| Middle income | $20,522 |
| High income | $17,750 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $18,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,563 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,750 |
| Independent students | $22,000 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Northwood.
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
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.