by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Pierce College District, 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 Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom, 14% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $5,684 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,646. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap for a typical dependent student. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Counting every undergraduate at Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom, 18% rely on federal student loans toward their education, averaging $6,548 a year. This works out to 16.0% higher than the freshman federal average of $5,646.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $13,096 after two years and $26,192 across a four-year program. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 18% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,548 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 822 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,382,152 |
The median student at Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom borrows $8,532 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,532 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $12,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,250 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,834 |
| 25th percentile | $3,294 |
| 75th percentile | $12,125 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $19,841 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom.
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 Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 512 | $12,328 |
| Completed (graduates) | 62 | $11,690 |
| Did not complete | 450 | $12,364 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $139.01/mo.
Stafford loans are the federal direct-loan program most undergraduates use. The breakdown below separates borrowers who used Stafford loans from those who did not at Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 490 | $12,456 |
| No Stafford loan | 22 | $7,200 |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 147 | $8,504 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 365 | $14,314 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 8.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1157 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $8,250 |
| High income | $6,717 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $8,819 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $9,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Pierce College-Fort Steilacoom.
Subsidized vs. 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.
Did You Know?
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.