by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Cairn University-Langhorne, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at Cairn, 57% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, averaging $7,740 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,468, which is 99.4% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. 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 Cairn, 58% borrow through federal student loan programs, for a typical $6,127 a year. It comes to 12.1% higher than the $5,468 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,254 over two years and about $24,508 by the fourth year. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 58% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,127 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 454 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,781,500 |
The median student at Cairn borrows $17,063 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $17,063 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,926 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Cairn.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,125 |
| 75th percentile | $28,750 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $35,250 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Cairn.
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 Cairn.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 144 | $19,581 |
| Completed (graduates) | 76 | $20,393 |
| Did not complete | 68 | $18,443 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $242.49/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Cairn.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 134 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 10 | — |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Cairn.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Cairn is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 366 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $17,875 |
| Middle income | $18,875 |
| High income | $12,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $16,750 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,125 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $16,373 |
| Independent students | $21,500 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Cairn.
Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
Worth Knowing
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.