by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Pennsylvania College of Technology: 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.
Looking at the entering class at Penn College, 67% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, borrowing on average $14,399 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federal loan is $5,307, or about 96.5% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Across the full undergraduate body at Penn College (freshmen included), 60% finance part of their studies with federal loans, for a typical $6,554 per year. That is 23.5% greater than the freshman federal average of $5,307.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $13,108 by year two and around $26,216 by the fourth year. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 60% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,554 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,589 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $16,967,816 |
The middle borrower at Penn College owes $15,250 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,250 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $23,961 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,500 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Penn College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,475 |
| 75th percentile | $26,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $35,189 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Penn College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Penn College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1132 | $26,756 |
| Completed (graduates) | 629 | $36,863 |
| Did not complete | 503 | $19,116 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $438.34/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at Penn College.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1098 | $27,104 |
| No Stafford loan | 34 | $7,049 |
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1077 | $27,190 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 55 | $10,000 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Penn College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Penn College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 8.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2389 |
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 | $16,500 |
| Middle income | $15,615 |
| High income | $15,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $14,750 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $14,990 |
| Independent students | $20,000 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Penn College.
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.