Student debt
Also called median debt · cumulative debt · Scorecard debt
EVAL answers what they borrowed here. ANY answers what federal principal they take into repayment. A student borrows $20,000 as an undergrad elsewhere, then $80,000 at the MBA campus: EVAL $80,000, ANY $100,000. Mixing the two in a ranking table is a construction error. The consumer site surfaces both reference-school debt and any-school debt.
Student debt on College Scorecard is median cumulative federal loan principal at completion for Title IV borrowers in a field of study. It is not private loans, not accrued interest, and not what the typical graduate owes. Two methods exist: EVAL (this school) and ANY (any school attended) (Scorecard FOS documentation).
EVAL or ANY — which number is “MBA debt”?
EVAL answers what they borrowed here. ANY answers what federal principal they take into repayment. A student borrows $20,000 as an undergrad elsewhere, then $80,000 at the MBA campus: EVAL $80,000, ANY $100,000. Mixing the two in a ranking table is a construction error. The consumer site surfaces both reference-school debt and any-school debt.
What Scorecard debt includes
| Piece | In the MBA-relevant metric? | Source / date |
|---|---|---|
| Direct unsubsidized + Grad PLUS (STGP) | Yes | ED FOS docs |
| Parent PLUS (PP) | Separate series; usually not MBA | ED FOS docs |
| Perkins | No | ED |
| Private / family loans | No | ED |
| Accrued interest | No — disbursed principal | ED |
| Non-borrowers | Out of the median | ED |
| EVAL vs ANY | Two methods, not an average | ED |
Undergraduate-level loans do not roll into a master’s field; graduate-level loans do. Scorecard also prints a 10-year illustrated payment on the median (documentation has used 4.99% undergraduate Direct and 7.54% graduate/PLUS). That is not the borrower’s IDR bill.
Example: MBA field EVAL STGP median $68,000, ANY $79,000, n = 140 borrowers. Forty percent of completers did not borrow federal loans, so they are absent. Using $68,000 as “what MBAs owe” understates ANY and ignores non-borrowers.
Common errors
- Treating EVAL and ANY as interchangeable
- Adding Parent PLUS to Grad PLUS and calling it MBA debt
- Reading the 10-year illustration as the student’s payment
- Coding suppressed cells as $0
FAQ
Does the median include people who borrowed nothing?
No. It is a median among Title IV borrowers. The share who borrowed is a separate count.
Are private MBA loans in Scorecard?
No. Only Title IV. Employer recapture and family loans are out.
Which method should I use for ROI?
Name it. EVAL for “borrowed here.” ANY for total federal principal. Do not average them.
Is campus-wide undergraduate debt a proxy for the MBA?
No. Institution-level debt often mixes undergraduate completers and withdrawals across programs.
Related terms
Sources
- Field of Study Data Documentation EVAL vs ANY; STGP vs Parent PLUS; Title IV borrowers; principal only
- College Scorecard Data Home Field-of-study files include cumulative debt at graduation
