by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend San Diego State 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.
Among first-year students at SDSU, 27% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $8,710 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,941, or about 89.8% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Looking at all undergraduates at SDSU, freshmen included, 24% borrow through federal student loan programs, averaging $6,497 in federal loans per year. That amounts to 31.5% larger than the $4,941 freshmen take on.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,994 by year two and around $25,988 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 | 24% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,497 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 7,915 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $51,427,146 |
The middle borrower at SDSU owes $12,847 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $12,847 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $15,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 SDSU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,749 |
| 25th percentile | $6,130 |
| 75th percentile | $23,531 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,591 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at SDSU.
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 SDSU.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 2672 | $24,559 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1910 | $25,565 |
| Did not complete | 762 | $22,140 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $304.0/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at SDSU.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 2491 | $24,958 |
| No Stafford loan | 181 | $22,298 |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 2244 | $25,715 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 428 | $20,190 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for SDSU.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for SDSU follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 5599 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $12,441 |
| Middle income | $12,500 |
| High income | $14,996 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $12,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $14,000 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $12,998 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at SDSU.
The Difference Between 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.
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.