by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Sacred Heart University— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Sacred Heart, 65% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $15,500 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,266, equal to roughly 95.7% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. 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 Sacred Heart, 58% rely on federal student loans toward their education, averaging $6,464 each per year. It comes to 22.7% greater than the $5,266 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,928 in two years and roughly $25,856 across a four-year program. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 58% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,464 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 3,979 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $25,720,823 |
The median student at Sacred Heart borrows $19,860 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,860 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $25,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $6,250 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Sacred Heart.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,168 |
| 25th percentile | $7,595 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,000 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Sacred Heart.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Sacred Heart.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1302 | $35,761 |
| Completed (graduates) | 876 | $45,486 |
| Did not complete | 426 | $25,000 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $540.88/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at Sacred Heart.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1286 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 16 | — |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1115 | $37,500 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 187 | $29,058 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Sacred Heart.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Sacred Heart is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1363 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $15,591 |
| Middle income | $18,249 |
| High income | $21,446 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $20,610 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $20,980 |
| Independent students | $12,421 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Sacred Heart.
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.
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.