by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital School of Nursing: 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.
Among first-year students at BHSN, 100% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $15,915 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $6,650. This is at or above the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap that applies to the typical dependent freshman. 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 BHSN, 76% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $7,449 a year. That amounts to 12.0% above the $6,650 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $14,898 in two years and roughly $29,796 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 | 76% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,449 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 135 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,005,589 |
The middle borrower at BHSN owes $15,555 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,555 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $20,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,500 |
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 BHSN.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $10,730 |
| 75th percentile | $21,592 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $35,750 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at BHSN.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for BHSN.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 44 | $21,830 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at BHSN.
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 BHSN is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.3% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 153 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $19,000 |
| Middle income | $16,000 |
| High income | $12,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,555 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,125 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $12,000 |
| Independent students | $20,000 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for BHSN.
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.
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.