by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for University of Maine at Augusta— 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.
At UMA specifically, 40% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $7,395 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,333, equal to roughly 97.0% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Looking at all undergraduates at UMA, freshmen included, 40% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, with a mean of $6,954 in federal loans per year. This is 30.4% higher than the $5,333 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $13,908 over two years and about $27,816 after four. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 40% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,954 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,104 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $7,676,884 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at UMA carry a median federal debt of $13,215 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,215 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $22,734 |
| Students who withdrew | $10,000 |
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 UMA.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,698 |
| 25th percentile | $5,492 |
| 75th percentile | $26,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $41,621 |
The spread between the lowest- and highest-debt deciles summarizes how variable outcomes are at UMA.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for UMA.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 280 | $9,547 |
| Completed (graduates) | 78 | $8,950 |
| Did not complete | 202 | $10,000 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $106.43/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at UMA.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 143 | $8,000 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 137 | $11,818 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for UMA.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for UMA is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 18.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1545 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $14,748 |
| Middle income | $12,500 |
| High income | $12,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $13,550 |
| Continuing-generation students | $11,544 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $10,500 |
| Independent students | $15,829 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at UMA.
The Difference Between 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.