by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Saint Louis University: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
At SLU specifically, 46% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $7,316 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $5,295, or about 96.3% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Counting every undergraduate at SLU, 43% rely on federal student loans toward their education, borrowing on average $6,434 each per year. That amounts to 21.5% more than the $5,295 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $12,868 by year two and around $25,736 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 43% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,434 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 3,120 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $20,074,607 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at SLU 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) | $25,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,750 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 SLU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $11,000 |
| 75th percentile | $27,209 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $38,500 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at SLU.
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 SLU.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1185 | $29,104 |
| Completed (graduates) | 816 | $34,177 |
| Did not complete | 369 | $21,956 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $406.4/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at SLU.
Stafford vs Non-Stafford (any year)
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1164 | $29,518 |
| No Stafford loan | 21 | $17,750 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 990 | $32,074 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 195 | $20,217 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. SLU.
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 SLU follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2786 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $19,000 |
| Middle income | $19,500 |
| High income | $20,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,701 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $20,000 |
| Independent students | $16,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at SLU.
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?
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.