Mark Kantrowitz Supplies Data on Cohort Default Rates

The US Department of Education released today (September 14, 2009) the official FY2007 cohort default rates. The official rates were slightly lower than the draft FY2007 cohort default rates released earlier this year (on March 26, 2009).

CDR Draft Official
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National 6.9% 6.7%
FFELP 7.3% 7.2%
Direct Loans 5.3% 4.8%
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A searchable database of cohort default rates for schools

A searchable database of cohort default rates for lenders

The following table illustrates changes from FY2006 to FY2007 by control of institution:

Control FY2006 FY2007 Change
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Public 4.7% 5.9% +1.2%
Private 2.5% 3.7% +1.2%
For-Profit 9.7% 11.0% +1.3%
Foreign 1.2% 2.2% +1.0%
TOTAL 5.2% 6.7% +1.5%
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Detail for for-profit colleges is shown in the following table:

Level & Control FY2006 FY2007 Change
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For-Profit
< 2 year 10.9% 12.0% +1.1%
2-3 year 11.1% 12.5% +1.4%
4+ year 8.4% 9.8% +1.4%
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The Department has not published preliminary 3-year cohort default rate data. I do not expect them to publish this data until mid-September 2011.

Mark Kantrowitz
Publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com