by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Northern Career Institute: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At Northern Career Institute, 91% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, with a typical loan of $8,117 each — a figure that counts both private and federal student loans.
On the federal side, the average loan is $8,117. This meets or exceeds the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent freshman. Note that average undergraduate loan amounts shown later do not include private loans — so the full freshman figure above is not directly comparable.
Across the full undergraduate body at Northern Career Institute (freshmen included), 71% finance part of their studies with federal loans, with a mean of $7,775 in federal loans per year. It comes to 4.2% below the $8,117 borrowed by freshmen.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $15,550 by year two and around $31,100 across a four-year program. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 71% |
| Average federal loan per year | $7,775 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 99 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $769,754 |
The median student at Northern Career Institute borrows $9,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $9,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $9,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $4,750 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.
The median hides the spread, so the percentiles below show cumulative federal debt at four points in the distribution for Northern Career Institute.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $5,500 |
| 75th percentile | $9,500 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $9,500 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Northern Career Institute.
PLUS loans — taken out by parents or graduate students — add to the total cost of attendance financed by debt at Northern Career Institute.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 24 | $8,556 |
The indicators below describe what the typical debt costs to pay back at Northern Career Institute.
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 Northern Career Institute is shown below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 6.6% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 60 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $9,500 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $9,500 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for Northern Career Institute.
The Difference Between 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.
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.