by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend St Bonaventure University— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At St. Bonaventure specifically, 89% of incoming undergraduates borrow in year one, with a typical loan of $10,541 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The average federal loan is $6,803. This meets or exceeds the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent freshman. 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 St. Bonaventure, 94% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $11,679 in federal loans per year. That is 71.7% greater than the $6,803 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $23,358 over two years and about $46,716 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 | 94% |
| Average federal loan per year | $11,679 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,785 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $20,846,127 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at St. Bonaventure carry a median federal debt of $19,500 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,750 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for St. Bonaventure.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $11,358 |
| 75th percentile | $28,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at St. Bonaventure.
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 St. Bonaventure.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 365 | $26,470 |
| Completed (graduates) | 209 | $36,756 |
| Did not complete | 156 | $21,425 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $437.07/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 St. Bonaventure.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 344 | $27,505 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 21 | $23,000 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. St. Bonaventure.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for St. Bonaventure is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 633 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $18,500 |
| Middle income | $18,500 |
| High income | $20,500 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,500 |
| Independent students | $18,875 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for St. Bonaventure.
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.
Important to Remember
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.