by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend University of Detroit Mercy: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Detroit Mercy specifically, 30% of first-year students take on loan debt, with a typical loan of $6,523 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,186, or about 94.3% of the $5,500 first-year borrowing cap for the typical first-year 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 Detroit Mercy, 38% take out federal student loans, averaging $6,766 in federal loans per year. This works out to 30.5% greater than the $5,186 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $13,532 after two years and $27,064 over a four-year span. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 38% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,766 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 870 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,886,582 |
The middle borrower at Detroit Mercy owes $19,950 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,950 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $23,250 |
| Students who withdrew | $11,000 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Detroit Mercy.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,000 |
| 25th percentile | $7,500 |
| 75th percentile | $31,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $41,900 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Detroit Mercy.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Detroit Mercy.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 596 | $20,707 |
| Completed (graduates) | 460 | $22,484 |
| Did not complete | 136 | $15,542 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $267.36/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 Detroit Mercy.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 552 | $21,143 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 44 | $17,425 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Detroit Mercy.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Detroit Mercy is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 4.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1535 |
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 | $21,931 |
| Middle income | $21,000 |
| High income | $19,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $20,610 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,000 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,203 |
| Independent students | $25,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Detroit Mercy.
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.