by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Sarah Lawrence College— 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.
At Sarah Lawrence specifically, 44% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $8,752 each, across private and federal loan sources.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,298, amounting to 96.3% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
For undergraduates overall at Sarah Lawrence, 42% borrow through federal student loan programs, averaging $6,383 per year. That is 20.5% higher than the first-year federal average of $5,298.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,766 across two years and $25,532 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 | 42% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,383 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 615 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,925,829 |
The median student at Sarah Lawrence borrows $19,500 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,248 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Sarah Lawrence.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $6,500 |
| 75th percentile | $19,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $28,553 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Sarah Lawrence.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Sarah Lawrence.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 157 | $39,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 114 | $47,408 |
| Did not complete | 43 | $24,417 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $563.73/mo.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Sarah Lawrence.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Sarah Lawrence follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 383 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $16,000 |
| Middle income | $23,765 |
| High income | $19,463 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $20,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,750 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Sarah Lawrence.
Subsidized vs. 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.