by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Wheaton College (Massachusetts), including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. All figures come from the U.S. Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at Wheaton College Massachusetts, 85% of new students use loans toward freshman-year expenses, for an average of $8,066 per borrower, covering both private and federal loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $5,566. That sits at or beyond the $5,500 first-year federal limit for a typical dependent student. Keep in mind the all-undergraduate averages further down count federal loans only, unlike this private-plus-federal freshman figure.
Counting every undergraduate at Wheaton College Massachusetts, 78% rely on federal student loans toward their education, borrowing on average $6,604 in federal loans per year. That is 18.6% greater than the $5,566 typical freshmen borrow.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $13,208 in two years and roughly $26,416 across a four-year program. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 78% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,604 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,357 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $8,961,240 |
The middle borrower at Wheaton College Massachusetts owes $23,000 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $23,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,750 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 Wheaton College Massachusetts.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $5,500 |
| 25th percentile | $12,000 |
| 75th percentile | $27,700 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $30,102 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at Wheaton College Massachusetts.
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 Wheaton College Massachusetts.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 155 | $36,000 |
| Completed (graduates) | 108 | $58,410 |
| Did not complete | 47 | $14,000 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $694.56/mo.
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Wheaton College Massachusetts.
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 Wheaton College Massachusetts follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 5.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 252 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Borrowing by Income Tier
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $21,750 |
| Middle income | $23,000 |
| High income | $23,000 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $23,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $23,000 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Wheaton College Massachusetts.
Subsidized vs. 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
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.