by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Wagner College— how much they borrow, how that debt is spread across the student body, and what it costs to pay back. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
For incoming students at Wagner, 57% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, with a typical loan of $10,684 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $5,500, or about 100.0% 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 Wagner (freshmen included), 54% borrow through federal student loan programs, borrowing on average $6,940 per year. That amounts to 26.2% more than the first-year federal average of $5,500.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $13,880 after two years and $27,760 over four years. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 54% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,940 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 849 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $5,891,677 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Wagner carry a median federal debt of $21,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $21,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $25,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $6,500 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Wagner.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $10,000 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,500 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Wagner.
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 Wagner.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 360 | $45,906 |
| Completed (graduates) | 248 | $53,829 |
| Did not complete | 112 | $37,625 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $640.08/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 Wagner.
Borrowers With a Stafford Loan This Year
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 328 | $47,972 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 32 | $24,513 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Wagner.
The default rate measures how many borrowers fall behind and ultimately fail to repay their federal loans. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for Wagner appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 477 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $22,000 |
| Middle income | $21,329 |
| High income | $20,500 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $21,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $20,000 |
| Independent students | $25,000 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Wagner.
Subsidized and Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
Important to Remember
Federal student loans are not discharged in bankruptcy in all but the rarest cases, and the government can withhold part of your income or tax refund if you default.
References
More about our data sources and methodologies.