3 Year Cohort Default Rate

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What does the default rate mean?

A student is considered to be in default on a student loan if they have not made a payment in more than 270 days. The official student loan default rate for a school is calculated by measuring how many students are in default three years after graduation. Note that the default rate only takes into account federal loans, not private.

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SHSU Default Rate

According to College Factual, Loan default rates can serve students as an indicator for college affordability. The Fiscal Year 2019’s 3 Year Cohort Default Rate (CDR) for Sam Houston State University is 1.3%. This includes 4,790 borrowers in repayment during the 2017 Fiscal Year. Those students were tracked over a three year period and 63 of them defaulted on their student loans.

The Department of Education does not have the national FY 2019 3 year CDR published, so for comparison, SHSU’s FY 2018 3 year CDR was 6.2%. This included 294 defaulted borrowers out of 4,677 in repayment. The national 3 year CDR was 7.3%.

With the pause of student loan repayments, there is a nationwide decrease in the 3 year CDR since borrowers are not required to make payment. See Deferral of Accountability Metrics: Unintended Consequences of the Student Loan Payment Pause.


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