by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Shenandoah University, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Shenandoah, 65% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, with a typical loan of $10,669 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,737. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a 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.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at Shenandoah, 62% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $7,512 in federal loans per year. That is 30.9% more than the first-year federal average of $5,737.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $15,024 by year two and around $30,048 over four years. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 62% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,512 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,314 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $9,870,876 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Shenandoah 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Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Shenandoah.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $10,000 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,075 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Shenandoah.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Shenandoah.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 594 | $37,073 |
| Completed (graduates) | 366 | $46,387 |
| Did not complete | 228 | $26,582 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $551.59/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Shenandoah.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 548 | $38,220 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 46 | $17,259 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Shenandoah.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Shenandoah appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 794 |
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 | $21,750 |
| Middle income | $19,000 |
| High income | $18,992 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $18,500 |
| Independent students | $24,940 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Shenandoah.
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.
Important to Remember
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.