by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend University of Idaho: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Looking at the entering class at U of I, 52% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $5,848 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,068, or about 92.1% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. 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 U of I, 48% borrow through federal student loan programs, for a typical $6,278 a year. This works out to 23.9% more than the $5,068 freshmen take on.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,556 across two years and $25,112 across a four-year program. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 48% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,278 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 3,539 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $22,217,528 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at U of I carry a median federal debt of $15,784 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,784 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $21,982 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,751 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for U of I.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $3,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,000 |
| 75th percentile | $28,400 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $39,357 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at U of I.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at U of I.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1222 | $16,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 654 | $21,162 |
| Did not complete | 568 | $12,986 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $251.64/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at U of I.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1190 | $16,078 |
| No Stafford loan | 32 | $11,741 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1024 | $16,056 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 198 | $15,747 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at U of I.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for U of I appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 6.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2292 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
The breakdowns below show median federal debt by income, first-generation status, and dependency.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $18,500 |
| Middle income | $15,477 |
| High income | $15,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $15,734 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,913 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,000 |
| Independent students | $20,000 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at U of I.
Subsidized vs. 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.
Important to Remember
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.