by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend Trinity International University-Illinois— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
Among first-year students at TIU Illinois, 25% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, for an average of $6,773 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
Federal loans alone average $6,773. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap for a typical dependent student. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Counting every undergraduate at TIU Illinois, 61% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, with a mean of $3,237 a year. This is 52.2% smaller than the first-year federal average of $6,773.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $6,474 over two years and about $12,948 over four years. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 61% |
| Average federal loan per year | $3,237 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 86 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $278,386 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at TIU Illinois carry a median federal debt of $19,500 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,082 |
| Students who withdrew | $12,070 |
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 TIU Illinois.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,000 |
| 75th percentile | $29,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $43,397 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at TIU Illinois.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for TIU Illinois.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 222 | $16,397 |
| Completed (graduates) | 107 | $19,098 |
| Did not complete | 115 | $13,000 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $227.1/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at TIU Illinois.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 162 | $18,451 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 60 | $10,043 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for TIU Illinois.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for TIU Illinois appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 732 |
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 | $19,554 |
| Middle income | $19,343 |
| High income | $19,375 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $20,430 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,748 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,000 |
| Independent students | $28,734 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for TIU Illinois.
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.
Worth Knowing
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.