by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page focuses on the debt students take on to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute, including completion-adjusted borrowing and a standard repayment estimate. The data below is drawn directly from federal sources.
At WPI specifically, 59% of freshmen borrow to help pay for their first year, at roughly $12,372 each, across private and federal loan sources.
The average federally funded loan is $5,300, or about 96.4% of the $5,500 cap on first-year federal borrowing for the typical dependent student. 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 WPI, 53% use federal student loans to help pay for their education, at an average of $6,433 in federal loans per year. This is 21.4% larger than the $5,300 borrowed by freshmen.
Borrowing the same amount each year would add up to roughly $12,866 in two years and roughly $25,732 by the fourth year. The estimate holds federal borrowing constant and does not count private or Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 53% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,433 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 2,821 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $18,146,619 |
Graduating and withdrawing students at WPI carry a median federal debt of $26,978 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $26,978 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $27,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $12,000 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 WPI.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $7,500 |
| 25th percentile | $17,500 |
| 75th percentile | $30,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $32,500 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at WPI.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for WPI.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 394 | $43,530 |
| Completed (graduates) | 273 | $53,567 |
| Did not complete | 121 | $30,452 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $636.97/mo.
Federal data lets us separate Stafford borrowers from the rest at WPI.
Stafford This Year vs Not
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 312 | $52,144 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 82 | $23,294 |
These figures turn the debt totals into a monthly repayment picture for WPI.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. The federal two-year cohort default rate for WPI follows.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 2.7% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 720 |
This rate follows a borrower cohort from the start of repayment through the two-year window the Department of Education uses.
Borrowing varies by family income, by first-generation status, and by dependency status.
By Family Income
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $27,000 |
| Middle income | $27,000 |
| High income | $26,902 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $26,500 |
| Continuing-generation students | $27,000 |
By Dependency Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $27,000 |
| Independent students | $21,886 |
The Department of Education computes gap indicators that show how borrowing differs between student groups at WPI.
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.