by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Whitman 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.
At Whitman specifically, 67% of first-year students take on loan debt, averaging $5,182 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
The typical federal loan comes to $4,635, amounting to 84.3% 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.
Counting every undergraduate at Whitman, 54% borrow through federal student loan programs, for a typical $5,726 a year. This is 23.5% larger than the $4,635 typical freshmen borrow.
Borrowing at that rate every year works out to about $11,452 by year two and around $22,904 after four. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 54% |
| Average federal loan per year | $5,726 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 827 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $4,735,049 |
The middle borrower at Whitman owes $12,000 in federal student loans.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $12,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $18,437 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Whitman.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,500 |
| 25th percentile | $9,971 |
| 75th percentile | $23,438 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $27,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Whitman.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Whitman.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 58 | $33,744 |
| Completed (graduates) | 36 | $36,384 |
| Did not complete | 22 | $20,675 |
Completers face an estimated standard 10-year monthly payment on their PLUS-inclusive debt of roughly $432.64/mo.
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. Whitman.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for Whitman follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 0.8% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 224 |
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.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
| Middle income | $13,542 |
| High income | $12,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $13,124 |
| Continuing-generation students | $11,941 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at Whitman.
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.
Did You Know?
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.