College Guide
Blog
September 16, 2009 2:24 PM
Yup, More Bad News
I’m starting to feel like a broken record here, but some more depressing higher-ed-related economic news is out this week.
From Diverse Issues in Higher Education:
In another sign of the recession’s impact on higher education, the federal government Monday said student loan default rates are up significantly as more borrowers report difficulty repaying the money used to pay for college.
The U.S. Education Department’s official default rate for 2007 increased to 6.7 percent, up from 5.2 percent the previous year. The new figure is for students who began loan repayment by September 2007 but were considered in default by September 2008.
Among 3.3 million borrowers entering repayment, more than 225,300 went into default, the department said. Default rates increased for all sectors of higher education, including two- and four-year institutions as well as for-profit proprietary schools.
Reminder: These aren’t people who blew huge amount of money on yachts or on tricking out their cars. They wanted to go to college.
Facebook
Twitter
David on September 18, 2009 7:10 AM:
I think it would be prudcent to also flip the view of the rate of default - to look at the rate of repayment.
More than 92% of people receiving loans for college are paying them back.
Then, you're looking at it similarly to, say, high school graduation rates.
While it is needed to track the negative financial view, it is a disservice to not acknowledge the large success rate as well