by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Wabash College: 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.
At Wabash specifically, 67% of first-year students take on loan debt, at roughly $8,699 each, across private and federal loan sources.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,273, amounting to 95.9% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Bear in mind the undergraduate averages later on cover federal loans only, whereas this freshman total folds in private loans too.
Across the full undergraduate body at Wabash (freshmen included), 62% finance part of their studies with federal loans, averaging $6,414 in federal loans per year. It comes to 21.6% more than the first-year federal average of $5,273.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $12,828 by year two and around $25,656 over four years. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 62% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,414 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 522 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $3,348,216 |
The middle borrower at Wabash owes $24,855 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $24,855 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,733 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Wabash.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $14,332 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Wabash.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for Wabash.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 98 | $25,150 |
| Completed (graduates) | 71 | $28,000 |
| Did not complete | 27 | $20,000 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $332.95/mo.
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Wabash.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Wabash follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 8.5% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 187 |
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 | $21,500 |
| Middle income | $23,073 |
| High income | $26,868 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $25,083 |
| Continuing-generation students | $24,095 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Wabash.
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.
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.