by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend The University of Texas at Dallas— 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.
Among first-year students at UT Dallas, 29% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, averaging $7,586 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $5,039, which is 91.6% 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.
For undergraduates overall at UT Dallas, 33% rely on federal student loans toward their education, for a typical $7,774 annually. That is 54.3% greater than the freshman federal average of $5,039.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $15,548 after two years and $31,096 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 33% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,774 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 7,079 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $55,029,918 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at UT Dallas carry a median federal debt of $13,750 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,750 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $18,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $7,500 |
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 UT Dallas.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $22,750 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at UT Dallas.
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 UT Dallas.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1083 | $20,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 694 | $21,495 |
| Did not complete | 389 | $17,937 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $255.6/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 UT Dallas.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1044 | $20,000 |
| No Stafford loan | 39 | $19,830 |
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 848 | $20,616 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 235 | $18,386 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. UT Dallas.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for UT Dallas follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2855 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $13,750 |
| Middle income | $13,063 |
| High income | $14,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $13,874 |
| Continuing-generation students | $13,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $12,779 |
| Independent students | $18,750 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at UT Dallas.
Subsidized vs. Unsubsidized Loans
Unsubsidized federal student loans accrue interest every month — even while you are still enrolled. Unless you pay that interest as it builds, the balance you owe at graduation can be noticeably higher than the amount you originally borrowed.
Did You Know?
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.