by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Roger Williams University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At RWU specifically, 72% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $12,863 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,261, amounting to 95.7% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Counting every undergraduate at RWU, 56% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $6,450 each per year. It comes to 22.6% higher than the $5,261 freshmen take on.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $12,900 in two years and roughly $25,800 over a four-year span. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 56% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,450 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,252 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $14,524,424 |
The median student at RWU borrows $19,500 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,940 |
| Students who withdrew | $6,119 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for RWU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,750 |
| 25th percentile | $7,017 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $28,973 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at RWU.
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 RWU.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 649 | $35,175 |
| Completed (graduates) | 432 | $49,892 |
| Did not complete | 217 | $22,951 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $593.27/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at RWU.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 637 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 12 | — |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 591 | $38,361 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 58 | $14,353 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at RWU.
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 RWU appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1149 |
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 | $14,066 |
| Middle income | $19,500 |
| High income | $20,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $20,171 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $20,000 |
| Independent students | $10,145 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for RWU.
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.
Important to Remember
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.