by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for The Beauty School: 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.
Looking at the entering class at The Beauty School, 100% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, averaging $10,620 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federally funded loan is $10,620. 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.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at The Beauty School, 57% rely on federal student loans toward their education, with a mean of $9,833 a year. It comes to 7.4% less than the $10,620 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $19,666 across two years and $39,332 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 | 57% |
| Average federal loan per year | $9,833 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 54 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $531,000 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at The Beauty School carry a median federal debt of $8,802 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $8,802 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $10,830 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,750 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for The Beauty School.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $12,028 |
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at The Beauty School.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 39 | $6,087 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at The Beauty School.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for The Beauty School is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 11.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 34 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $8,028 |
| Independent students | $10,757 |
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.
Important to Remember
Unlike most other debt, federal student loans generally survive bankruptcy — and unpaid balances can lead to wage garnishment — so borrow only what you truly need.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.