by our College Data Analytics TeamHere you will find what students actually borrow to attend West Virginia Junior College-Charleston— 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.
Looking at the entering class at WVJC Charleston, 87% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, with a typical loan of $6,108 per student, private and federal loans combined.
The average federally funded loan is $4,965, which is 90.3% of the $5,500 federal limit that applies to a typical first-year dependent borrower. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
For undergraduates overall at WVJC Charleston, 73% finance part of their studies with federal loans, with a mean of $5,776 per year. That is 16.3% more than the $4,965 borrowed by freshmen.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $11,552 across two years and $23,104 after four. These projections assume the same federal borrowing each year and exclude private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 73% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,776 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 231 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $1,334,323 |
The median student at WVJC Charleston borrows $7,195 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $7,195 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $8,270 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,250 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for WVJC Charleston.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $2,159 |
| 25th percentile | $4,364 |
| 75th percentile | $10,731 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $13,985 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at WVJC Charleston.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at WVJC Charleston.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 50 | $7,117 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for WVJC Charleston.
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 WVJC Charleston follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.2% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 365 |
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 | $6,761 |
| Middle income | $7,726 |
| High income | $8,642 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,989 |
| Continuing-generation students | $7,650 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $7,156 |
| Independent students | $7,196 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at WVJC Charleston.
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.