by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Southern Nazarene 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.
At SNU specifically, 62% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, borrowing on average $6,488 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,193, which is 94.4% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. 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 SNU, 65% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, for a typical $7,109 in federal loans per year. That amounts to 36.9% higher than the $5,193 typical freshmen borrow.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $14,218 in two years and roughly $28,436 by the fourth year. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 65% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,109 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 945 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $6,718,352 |
The middle borrower at SNU owes $17,337 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $17,337 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $21,900 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,750 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for SNU.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $8,733 |
| 75th percentile | $23,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,190 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at SNU.
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 SNU.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 289 | $11,985 |
| Completed (graduates) | 156 | $12,550 |
| Did not complete | 133 | $11,610 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $149.23/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at SNU.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 247 | $12,500 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 42 | $9,084 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for SNU.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for SNU is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 909 |
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 | $18,750 |
| Middle income | $18,750 |
| High income | $15,125 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $17,188 |
| Continuing-generation students | $18,000 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $13,942 |
| Independent students | $18,750 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at SNU.
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.
Worth Knowing
Declaring bankruptcy does not erase federal student loan debt. If you stop paying, the federal government can garnish a portion of your wages until the loans are repaid.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.