by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend University of California-San Diego, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at UCSD, 25% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, borrowing on average $5,557 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federally funded loan is $4,158, which is 75.6% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Among all degree-seeking undergrads at UCSD, 21% finance part of their studies with federal loans, borrowing on average $4,526 each per year. This works out to 8.9% greater than the first-year federal average of $4,158.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $9,052 in two years and roughly $18,104 over a four-year span. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 21% |
| Average federal loan per year | $4,526 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 7,228 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $32,712,037 |
The middle borrower at UCSD owes $14,778 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $14,778 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $15,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $10,924 |
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 UCSD.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,159 |
| 25th percentile | $9,200 |
| 75th percentile | $23,800 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $29,000 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at UCSD.
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 UCSD.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1831 | $23,535 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1384 | $24,257 |
| Did not complete | 447 | $20,285 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $288.44/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at UCSD.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1772 | $23,325 |
| No Stafford loan | 59 | $39,690 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1581 | $23,497 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 250 | $24,103 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. UCSD.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for UCSD follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 4836 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $14,552 |
| Middle income | $14,800 |
| High income | $14,792 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $14,799 |
| Continuing-generation students | $14,700 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $14,750 |
| Independent students | $14,800 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for UCSD.
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?
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.