by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Southern specifically, 9% of first-year students take on loan debt, with a typical loan of $5,598 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,598. That is at or past the $5,500 federal first-year limit for the typical dependent freshman. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
For undergraduates overall at Southern, 20% borrow through federal student loan programs, averaging $6,188 annually. That is 10.5% greater than the $5,598 borrowed by freshmen.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $12,376 after two years and $24,752 over a four-year span. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 20% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,188 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 230 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,423,217 |
The middle borrower at Southern owes $5,750 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,190 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
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 Southern.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,723 |
| 25th percentile | $2,482 |
| 75th percentile | $5,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $9,249 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Southern.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Southern.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 43 | $8,123 |
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Southern.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 20 | $10,324 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 23 | $6,000 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Southern.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Southern is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 17.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 99 |
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.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,000 |
| Middle income | $6,000 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $5,600 |
| Continuing-generation students | $6,000 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $7,464 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Southern.
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.
Did You Know?
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.