Dive Brief:
- Only 0.2% of the 7 million former students who are in default on their college loans attended the 21 schools that the U.S. Department of Education named as exceeding the maximum acceptable default rate.
- More important indicators of student loan default is whether the student is employed or graduates with a bachelor’s degree or better, according to a policy analyst at the New America Foundation.
- Of the students who started college during the 2003-2004 school year and six years later were in default, more than 60% failed to earn a degree.
Dive Insight:
Clare McCann, the policy analyst, writes in The Hill that just 3.5% of the students studied who earned a bachelor's or associate degree defaulted. Of all of the students who dropped out, roughly 25% were unemployed by 2009, two times higher than those who earned a bachelor’s degree. Of the students who defaulted on their loans and also completed college, almost 88% earned certificates of completion, not actual bachelor’s or associate degrees.