by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Texas Tech 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 Texas Tech, 42% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, for an average of $8,565 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,259, or about 95.6% 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.
Across the full undergraduate body at Texas Tech (freshmen included), 41% borrow through federal student loan programs, borrowing on average $6,351 in federal loans per year. This works out to 20.8% higher than the first-year federal average of $5,259.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $12,702 after two years and $25,404 by the fourth year. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 41% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,351 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 13,410 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $85,162,035 |
The median student at Texas Tech borrows $15,250 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,250 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $21,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $9,000 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Texas Tech.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,000 |
| 75th percentile | $26,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $34,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Texas Tech.
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 Texas Tech.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 3009 | $19,598 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1727 | $23,443 |
| Did not complete | 1282 | $16,390 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $278.76/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Texas Tech.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 2923 | $19,739 |
| No Stafford loan | 86 | $17,076 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 2672 | $20,000 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 337 | $14,155 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Texas Tech.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Texas Tech appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 5279 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
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 | $17,500 |
| Middle income | $16,000 |
| High income | $14,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $16,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $14,380 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,000 |
| Independent students | $18,750 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Texas Tech.
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.