by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Occidental College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Oxy specifically, 38% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $8,943 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,015, amounting to 91.2% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the 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 Oxy, 37% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $6,059 annually. This works out to 20.8% more than the $5,015 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,118 after two years and $24,236 over four years. 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 | $6,059 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 720 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $4,362,273 |
The middle borrower at Oxy owes $19,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $23,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,080 |
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 Oxy.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $11,975 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $32,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Oxy.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Oxy.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 122 | $48,982 |
| Completed (graduates) | 82 | $51,450 |
| Did not complete | 40 | $33,599 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $611.8/mo.
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Oxy.
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 Oxy appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 226 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $19,000 |
| Middle income | $17,500 |
| High income | $19,248 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $18,800 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Oxy.
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
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.