by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Seton Hill 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.
Looking at the entering class at Seton Hill, 78% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, at roughly $9,632 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,263, equal to roughly 95.7% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Looking at all undergraduates at Seton Hill, freshmen included, 71% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $6,825 each per year. This works out to 29.7% greater than the $5,263 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $13,650 across two years and $27,300 across a four-year program. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 71% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,825 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,108 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $7,562,369 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Seton Hill carry a median federal debt of $23,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $23,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| 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 Seton Hill.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $11,187 |
| 75th percentile | $28,125 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $34,750 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Seton Hill.
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 Seton Hill.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 311 | $29,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 205 | $32,366 |
| Did not complete | 106 | $20,000 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $384.87/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 Seton Hill.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 289 | $29,170 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 22 | $16,435 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Seton Hill.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Seton Hill is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 6.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 588 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $22,000 |
| Middle income | $21,375 |
| High income | $23,250 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $22,342 |
| Continuing-generation students | $23,250 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $22,781 |
| Independent students | $23,245 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Seton Hill.
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.