by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for University of the Incarnate Word: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at UIW, 94% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, for an average of $6,831 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federally funded loan is $6,301. This reaches or tops the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap for a typical dependent student. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Counting every undergraduate at UIW, 50% finance part of their studies with federal loans, averaging $6,939 per year. This works out to 10.1% greater than the freshman federal average of $6,301.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $13,878 in two years and roughly $27,756 over four years. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 50% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,939 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,295 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $15,925,624 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at UIW carry a median federal debt of $21,231 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $21,231 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $10,512 |
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 UIW.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $9,029 |
| 75th percentile | $31,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $42,056 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at UIW.
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 UIW.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1128 | $20,871 |
| Completed (graduates) | 699 | $25,775 |
| Did not complete | 429 | $16,437 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $306.49/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at UIW.
Any-Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1101 | $20,790 |
| No Stafford loan | 27 | $28,154 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 946 | $23,381 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 182 | $13,240 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. UIW.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The federal two-year cohort default rate for UIW appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 6.9% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1768 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $22,937 |
| Middle income | $21,500 |
| High income | $18,832 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $21,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,500 |
| Independent students | $24,166 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at UIW.
The Difference Between Subsidized and 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.