by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend South Puget Sound Community College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at South Puget Sound Community College, 8% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $4,431 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,431, amounting to 80.6% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Counting every undergraduate at South Puget Sound Community College, 8% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, averaging $6,153 each per year. That is 38.9% above the $4,431 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $12,306 across two years and $24,612 over a four-year span. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 8% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,153 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 209 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,285,930 |
The median student at South Puget Sound Community College borrows $6,334 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,334 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $11,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,568 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at South Puget Sound Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,560 |
| 25th percentile | $3,125 |
| 75th percentile | $10,893 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $17,965 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at South Puget Sound Community College.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for South Puget Sound Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 221 | $11,945 |
| Completed (graduates) | 44 | $7,569 |
| Did not complete | 177 | $13,334 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $90.0/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 South Puget Sound Community College.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 49 | $9,606 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 172 | $12,534 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at South Puget Sound Community College.
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 South Puget Sound Community College is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 14.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 463 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
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 | $6,871 |
| Middle income | $6,334 |
| High income | $5,900 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,334 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,750 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,092 |
| Independent students | $7,125 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for South Puget Sound Community College.
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.
Worth Knowing
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.