Cohort Default Rate Resources

This page provides background and useful links about cohort default rates for reporters, policymakers, and the general public, but is not intended as a consumer resource for borrowers. If you have questions about your own student loans, please see these links.

What is the Cohort Default Rate?

Currently, the official Cohort Default Rate measures the share of each college's federal student loan borrowers who default within the first two years of repayment. A student defaults on a federal loan after at least 270 days of non-payment. Default adds significantly to the cost of the loan and ruins the borrower's credit score, among other serious consequences. Defaulted loans are not generally counted in a college's cohort default rate until they are 360 days overdue, leaving a gap of up to 90 days between when borrowers and colleges may first experience the consequences of default. 

The most recent college-level data are for borrowers who entered repayment in federal fiscal year 2009 (FY09) and defaulted in fiscal year 2009 or 2010 (two-year FY 09 CDRs). To more accurately measure defaults, the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 required the use of a longer window, one that includes borrowers who default within three years of entering repayment rather than within two years. The more meaningful "three-year CDRs" will be used to sanction schools that exceed certain thresholds beginning in 2014. In preparation, the Department of Education released "draft three-year CDRs" for the FY07 cohort in December 2009, and for the FY08 cohort in February 2011 (updated April 2011).

CDR Resources from the Project on Student Debt 

Press release about official two-year FY 09 CDRs (September 2011)

Blog post about the aggregate two-year FY 09 CDRs (May 2011)

Blog post about the revised three-year FY 08 CDRs (April 2011)

Press release about three-year FY 08 CDRs (February 2011)

Press release about two-year FY 08 CDRs (September 2010)

Press release about three-year FY 07 CDRs (December 2009)

School-by-School CDR Data 

Two-year FY 09 CDRs for specific schools can be found on the Department of Education CDR webpage

Two- and three-year FY 08 CDRs by school, made easier to use and understand by the Project on Student Debt (file updated April 2011) 

To put CDRs in context, look up a college on www.collegenavigator.gov to see what share of its undergraduates take out student loans (under the Financial Aid heading).  When many or most students at a college borrow, CDRs are particularly useful measures of accountability and quality. However, when based on a very small number or share of students, CDRs say less about the college as a whole.

U.S. Department of Education Materials on CDRs

FY09 CDRs:

Press release on two-year FY09 CDRs (September 2011)

Aggregate draft two-year FY09 CDRs (May 2011)

FY08 CDRs:

Press release on two-year FY08 CDRs (September 2010)

Additional materials about two-year FY08 CDRs (September 2010)

FY07 CDRs:

Press release on two-year FY07 CDRs (September 2009)

Information about three-year FY07 CDRs (December 2009)