by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for Northwood Technical College: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
For incoming students at WITC, 26% of first-year students take on loan debt, for an average of $4,805 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $4,848, equal to roughly 88.1% of the $5,500 first-year federal borrowing limit for a typical dependent freshman. Remember the all-undergraduate figures below leave out private loans, so they will look lower than this private-plus-federal freshman amount.
Counting every undergraduate at WITC, 32% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $4,590 in federal loans per year. That amounts to 5.3% under the freshman federal average of $4,848.
At a steady annual pace, that totals around $9,180 by year two and around $18,360 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 | 32% |
| Average federal loan per year | $4,590 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 642 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $2,946,489 |
The middle borrower at WITC owes $5,500 of cumulative federal debt.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $5,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $8,250 |
| Students who withdrew | $5,500 |
The figure for students who withdrew is worth watching: debt without a completed credential is the hardest to repay.
Looking only at the median is misleading — these four percentiles describe the full debt distribution for borrowers at WITC.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $1,750 |
| 25th percentile | $3,500 |
| 75th percentile | $10,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $14,386 |
The gap between the 10th and 90th percentile is the clearest single measure of how widely borrowing varies at WITC.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for WITC.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 147 | $7,573 |
| Completed (graduates) | 78 | $7,000 |
| Did not complete | 69 | $9,510 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $83.24/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at WITC.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 61 | $7,000 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 86 | $9,029 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for WITC.
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 WITC appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 11.0% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1129 |
The cohort default rate tracks borrowers who entered repayment in a given year and defaulted within the two-year measurement window.
Median debt differs by income tier, first-generation status, and whether the student is financially dependent.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $6,750 |
| Middle income | $5,500 |
| High income | $5,500 |
First-Gen vs Continuing-Gen Borrowing
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $6,033 |
| Continuing-generation students | $5,500 |
Dependency-Status Comparison
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $5,500 |
| Independent students | $6,999 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for WITC.
Subsidized vs. Unsubsidized Loans
With an unsubsidized loan, interest starts adding up the day the loan is disbursed, including during school. Subsidized loans, by contrast, do not accrue interest while you are enrolled at least half-time, which makes them the less expensive option when you qualify.
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.