Loan Defaults by School

One great thing about living in the Big Data world is, there is data available on just about any topic. One topic that those going through the college application process should be concerned about is, are graduates of the schools I’m interested in financially solvent? With more than half of students borrowing to pay for college and average loan balances of about $30,000 upon graduation, one way of figuring out the financial solvency of graduates of a particular school is to look at their student loan default rates. Fortunately, the US Department of Education makes that information available here. Click on GO next to “Search the Cohort Default Rate Database,” then enter a school name.

The data are 3-year default rates, so the most recent data is from the class of 2012.