by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend University of Wisconsin-Madison, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
Among first-year students at UW - Madison, 24% of first-year students take on loan debt, borrowing on average $9,678 each, across private and federal loan sources.
Federal loans alone average $5,165, which is 93.9% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Across the full undergraduate body at UW - Madison (freshmen included), 21% rely on federal student loans toward their education, at an average of $6,209 annually. That amounts to 20.2% greater than the $5,165 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $12,418 in two years and roughly $24,836 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 | 21% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,209 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 7,458 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $46,305,355 |
The median student at UW - Madison borrows $18,058 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $18,058 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $20,484 |
| Students who withdrew | $11,233 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 UW - Madison.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $9,960 |
| 75th percentile | $27,717 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $33,800 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at UW - Madison.
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 UW - Madison.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 1918 | $26,159 |
| Completed (graduates) | 1362 | $28,364 |
| Did not complete | 556 | $22,018 |
On a standard 10-year plan, the median completing borrower would pay about $337.28/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 UW - Madison.
Borrowers With Any Stafford Loan
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Used a Stafford loan | 1889 | $26,000 |
| No Stafford loan | 29 | $45,644 |
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 1493 | $27,860 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 425 | $22,258 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. UW - Madison.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. Two-year cohort default-rate data for UW - Madison follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 1.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 5484 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $13,750 |
| Middle income | $16,850 |
| High income | $19,058 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $18,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $17,575 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $18,500 |
| Independent students | $12,956 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at UW - Madison.
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?
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.