by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Shorter College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at Shorter College, 60% of first-year students take on loan debt, borrowing on average $6,928 per student, private and federal loans combined.
Federal loans alone average $6,928. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap 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.
Across the full undergraduate body at Shorter College (freshmen included), 60% finance part of their studies with federal loans, borrowing on average $7,427 each per year. This works out to 7.2% more than the $6,928 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $14,854 after two years and $29,708 over four years. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 60% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,427 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 174 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,292,348 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Shorter College carry a median federal debt of $22,625 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $22,625 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $29,500 |
Half of all borrowers fall between the 25th and 75th percentiles shown below for Shorter College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,117 |
| 25th percentile | $4,750 |
| 75th percentile | $21,496 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Shorter College.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Shorter College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Shorter College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 0 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
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.
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.