Three-year Official Cohort Default Rates for Schools

A 3-year cohort default rate is the percentage of a school's borrowers who enter repayment on certain Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program or William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program loans during a particular federal fiscal year (FY), October 1 to September 30, and default or meet other specified conditions prior to the end of the second following fiscal year. Please refer to the Cohort Default Rate Guide for a more in-depth description of cohort default rates and how the rates are calculated.

The U.S. Department of Education releases official cohort default rates once per year. The FY 2012 official 3-year cohort default rates were delivered to both domestic and foreign schools on September 28, 2015, electronically via the eCDR process. All schools must enroll in eCDR to receive cohort default rate notification. Schools may check their eCDR enrollment online or by calling CPS/SAIG Technical Support at 800-330-5947.

Secretary Duncan announced that the FY 2012 3-year national cohort default rate is 11.8 percent. The Department also released a summary of the FY 2012 official 3-year cohort default rates by state and by institution type. We are also providing a briefing on the national default rates.

Schools may also obtain an electronic loan record detail report via the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS) Professional Access website. A loan record detail report contains the data used to calculate a school's FY 2012 official 3-year cohort default rate. Assistance in accessing the NSLDS site or with downloading an electronic loan record detail report is available through NSLDS Customer Service at 1-800-999-8219.

For schools interested in taking actions to manage defaults, and for schools required to submit a default prevention plan based on at least one year of a 3-year cohort default rate equal to or greater than 30 percent, please refer to the federal regulations at 34 CFR 668.217 and Appendix A within that section.

Important Note. Some schools have a small number of borrowers entering repayment. At other schools only a small portion of the student body takes out student loans. In such cases, the cohort default rate should be interpreted with caution as these rates may not be reflective of the entire school population.

You may search this database for one school or many schools by OPEID (Office of Postsecondary Education Identification Number), school name, city/state, institution type, or eligibility status. Note: A school must have had at least one borrower in repayment for any of the years for which a cohort default rate was calculated to be found in this database.

Other information:

• Historically Black Colleges and Universities Fact Sheet .