by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for University of Southern Indiana, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at USI, 40% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $6,398 per student, private and federal loans combined.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,063, which is 92.1% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. 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 USI, 36% borrow through federal student loan programs, with a mean of $6,077 annually. That amounts to 20.0% more than the $5,063 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $12,154 in two years and roughly $24,308 across a four-year program. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 36% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,077 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,916 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $11,642,675 |
The median student at USI borrows $13,236 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $13,236 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $20,105 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,250 |
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 USI.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $23,962 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,500 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at USI.
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 USI.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 930 | $12,203 |
| Completed (graduates) | 486 | $13,626 |
| Did not complete | 444 | $11,547 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $162.03/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at USI.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 913 | — |
| No Stafford loan | 17 | — |
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 790 | $12,000 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 140 | $14,210 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. USI.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for USI is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 7.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 2279 |
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 | $12,500 |
| Middle income | $12,891 |
| High income | $14,000 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $13,243 |
| Continuing-generation students | $13,027 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $13,622 |
| Independent students | $12,500 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at USI.
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.
Important to Remember
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.