by our College Data Analytics TeamBelow is federal data on the loans students use to pay for York College of Pennsylvania: median debt, the percentile spread, total borrowing including PLUS loans, and the cost to repay. These figures are reported by the Department of Education and IPEDS.
Among first-year students at YCP, 67% of first-year students take on loan debt, for an average of $8,815 apiece. This figure includes both private and federally funded student loans.
Federal loans alone average $5,431, representing 98.7% of the typical first-year dependent student borrowing cap of $5,500. Be aware: the undergraduate-wide averages below exclude private loans, while this freshman number includes them.
Looking at all undergraduates at YCP, freshmen included, 60% take out federal student loans, with a mean of $6,372 annually. It comes to 17.3% greater than the $5,431 typical freshmen borrow.
Carrying that yearly figure forward comes to roughly $12,744 after two years and $25,488 after four. This projection keeps yearly federal borrowing flat and excludes private and Parent PLUS loans.
| Undergraduate federal borrowing | Value |
|---|---|
| Share using federal loans | 60% |
| Average federal loan per year | $6,372 |
| Undergraduates with a federal loan | 1,922 |
| Total federal loans (one year) | $12,246,910 |
The median student at YCP borrows $19,500 in federal borrowing.
| Borrower group | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| All federal borrowers | $19,500 |
| Students who completed (graduates) | $26,000 |
| Students who withdrew | $8,250 |
Withdrawn-student debt matters because those borrowers carry the loans without the degree that helps repay them.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 YCP.
| Percentile | Cumulative Federal Debt |
|---|---|
| 10th percentile (lowest-debt students) | $4,750 |
| 25th percentile | $9,045 |
| 75th percentile | $27,000 |
| 90th percentile (highest-debt students) | $32,636 |
How wide this percentile range is tells you how much borrowing varies across students at YCP.
Median federal debt understates the full cost when PLUS loans are included. The totals below add PLUS borrowing for YCP.
| Group | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| All borrowers | 559 | $25,836 |
| Completed (graduates) | 342 | $33,999 |
| Did not complete | 217 | $18,940 |
For students who completed, the median total debt including PLUS loans works out to a standard 10-year payment of about $404.28/mo.
The split below distinguishes Stafford borrowers from non-Stafford borrowers at YCP.
Current-Year Stafford Borrowers
| Cohort | Borrowers | Median debt incl. PLUS |
|---|---|---|
| Stafford loan this year | 520 | $26,030 |
| No Stafford loan this year | 39 | $17,808 |
Repayment burden translates the debt figures into what a borrower actually pays each month. YCP.
Defaulting means failing to repay a federal student loan, which carries serious credit consequences. Two-year cohort default-rate data for YCP appears below.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| 2-year cohort default rate | 3.1% |
| Borrowers in the cohort | 1362 |
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.
Median Debt by Income Bracket
| Income tier | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Low income | $15,000 |
| Middle income | $20,500 |
| High income | $19,500 |
By First-Generation Status
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| First-generation students | $19,000 |
| Continuing-generation students | $19,500 |
Dependent vs Independent Borrowers
| Cohort | Median federal debt |
|---|---|
| Dependent students | $19,500 |
| Independent students | $20,389 |
Federal data publishes the following gap measures for YCP.
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.
Important to Remember
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.