by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Triton College, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
At Triton College specifically, 2% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $4,931 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The average federal loan is $4,931, amounting to 89.7% 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.
For undergraduates overall at Triton College, 3% finance part of their studies with federal loans, averaging $5,234 annually. This works out to 6.1% above the $4,931 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $10,468 in two years and roughly $20,936 over a four-year span. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 3% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,234 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 161 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $842,703 |
The median student at Triton College borrows $5,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,413 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,750 |
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 Triton College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,339 |
| 25th percentile | $2,300 |
| 75th percentile | $8,680 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $15,400 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Triton College.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Triton College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 608 | $14,913 |
| Completed (graduates) | 84 | $10,500 |
| Did not complete | 524 | $15,052 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $124.86/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at Triton College.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 594 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 14 | — |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 69 | $10,000 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 539 | $15,281 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Triton College.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Triton College appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 7.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 340 |
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 | $5,876 |
| Middle income | $5,000 |
| High income | $5,407 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $5,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,250 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,500 |
| Independent students | $7,084 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Triton College.
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?
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.