by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Winona State University, 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 Winona State, 59% of incoming students take out a loan to help cover first-year costs, at roughly $9,432 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federally funded loan is $5,301, equal to roughly 96.4% 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.
For undergraduates overall at Winona State, 50% finance part of their studies with federal loans, for a typical $6,142 each per year. That is 15.9% larger than the freshman federal average of $5,301.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $12,284 by year two and around $24,568 over a four-year span. These figures assume identical federal borrowing each year and omit private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 50% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,142 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,561 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $15,729,648 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at Winona State carry a median federal debt of $15,000 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $15,000 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $21,500 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,000 |
Debt carried by students who withdrew is a key risk signal — these borrowers owe money without having earned the credential.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at Winona State.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,500 |
| 25th percentile | $7,607 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $31,000 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at Winona State.
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 Winona State.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 615 | $14,553 |
| Completed (graduates) | 347 | $19,316 |
| Did not complete | 268 | $11,000 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $229.69/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at Winona State.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 546 | $14,970 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 69 | $12,959 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for Winona State.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for Winona State appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1951 |
A lower default rate generally signals that graduates earn enough to manage their loan payments.
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 | $14,000 |
| Middle income | $15,000 |
| High income | $15,000 |
First-Generation Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $14,566 |
| Continuing-generation students | $15,250 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $15,000 |
| Independent students | $14,130 |
These pre-calculated indicators summarize the borrowing gaps between cohorts at Winona State.
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?
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.