by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Saline County Career Center— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At SCCC specifically, 100% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, averaging $7,317 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $7,317. This meets or exceeds the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent freshman. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
For undergraduates overall at SCCC, 87% finance part of their studies with federal loans, with a mean of $6,681 annually. This is 8.7% less than the $7,317 freshmen take on.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $13,362 over two years and about $26,724 across a four-year program. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 87% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,681 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 20 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $133,612 |
The middle borrower at SCCC owes $11,602 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $11,602 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $14,027 |
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at SCCC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $8,295 |
| 75th percentile | $14,015 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. SCCC.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. Two-year cohort default-rate data for SCCC is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 11.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 14 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
The Difference Between Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
Unsubsidized federal student loans accrue interest every month — even while you are still enrolled. Unless you pay that interest as it builds, the balance you owe at graduation can be noticeably higher than the amount you originally borrowed.
Worth Knowing
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.