by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Terra State Community College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Terra Community College specifically, 50% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, borrowing on average $5,507 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,087, amounting to 92.5% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Across the full undergraduate body at Terra Community College (freshmen included), 44% take out federal student loans, for a typical $5,488 a year. This works out to 7.9% above the $5,087 borrowed by freshmen.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $10,976 in two years and roughly $21,952 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 | 44% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,488 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 497 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,727,453 |
The median student at Terra Community College borrows $8,557 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,557 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $17,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,292 |
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 Terra Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,951 |
| 25th percentile | $3,800 |
| 75th percentile | $18,229 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $28,096 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Terra Community College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Terra Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 125 | $11,404 |
| Completed (graduates) | 25 | $12,000 |
| Did not complete | 100 | $11,064 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $142.69/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 Terra Community College.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 70 | $9,502 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 55 | $14,614 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Terra Community College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Terra Community College follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 24.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 944 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $7,587 |
| High income | $6,500 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $9,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,610 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $6,082 |
| Independent students | $11,280 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Terra Community College.
The Difference Between 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.
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.