by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for West Shore Community 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.
Looking at the entering class at West Shore Community College, 2% of first-year students take on loan debt, for an average of $10,750 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federal loan is $7,500. This is at or above the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing cap that applies to the typical dependent freshman. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Looking at all undergraduates at West Shore Community College, freshmen included, 6% finance part of their studies with federal loans, with a mean of $6,211 a year. This is 17.2% smaller than the freshman federal average of $7,500.
Repeating that yearly amount projects to about $12,422 by year two and around $24,844 over a four-year span. This assumes steady federal borrowing and leaves out private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 6% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,211 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 39 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $242,229 |
The middle borrower at West Shore Community College owes $6,000 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $6,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,089 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,456 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 West Shore Community College.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,500 |
| 25th percentile | $2,361 |
| 75th percentile | $9,609 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $16,105 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at West Shore Community College.
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 West Shore Community College.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 50 | $9,895 |
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at West Shore Community College.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 10 | — |
| No Stafford loan this year | 40 | — |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. West Shore Community College.
A loan default — failing to keep up with federal student-loan payments — is one of the worst financial outcomes a borrower can face. The official Department of Education two-year default rate for West Shore Community College is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 16.4% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 146 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
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 | $6,500 |
| Middle income | $6,000 |
| High income | $4,121 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,365 |
| Continuing-generation students | $4,456 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $4,196 |
| Independent students | $7,927 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for West Shore Community College.
The Difference Between 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.
Worth Knowing
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.