Little while back DQYDJ mentioned in an article that 30% of people in repayment on their student loans are in default. That number was shockingly high to me. I'm still puzzled why its so high. But anyway after reading that I was looking into default rates on student loans and I came across a page on the Dept. of Education site that lists the student loan default rate by university. The data they have is from 2011 and looked at 2008 so its a bit out of date. Unfortunately the default rates have apparently gone up significantly since '08.
I thought it would be interesting to see the list of schools with the highest and lowest default rates and so here they are. I filtered the list to only look at schools with at least 100 students. I noticed a few schools with the worst rates only had 1-4 students listed so that threw things off.
You can draw your own conclusions about what high or low default rates mean.
First he bad news, schools with the highest default rates.
These are the FY 2008 two year cohort default rates with at least 100 students: .
| School | State | Default |
| Academy Of Healing Arts | NV | 46.89 |
| Everest Institute | TX | 35.28 |
| Tucson College | AZ | 34.65 |
| Aviation Institute Of Maintenance | IN | 32.52 |
| Everest College | CA | 31.17 |
| Lamson College | AZ | 30.48 |
| Pennsylvania School Of Business | PA | 30.09 |
| Centro De Estudios Multidisciplinarios | PR | 29.57 |
| Talladega College | AL | 29.41 |
| Wyotech | FL | 29.20 |
| California Healing Arts College | CA | 28.71 |
| Institute For Business & Technology | CA | 28.33 |
| Plaza College | NY | 28.06 |
| Institute Of Technology | CA | 28.01 |
| Everest Institute | FL | 27.62 |
| Everest College | MO | 27.56 |
| College Of Office Technology (The) | IL | 27.38 |
| Career Institute Of Health And Technology | NY | 26.88 |
| Lincoln College Of Technology | TX | 26.34 |
| Everest College | CO | 26.24 |
| West Hills Community College | CA | 25.97 |
| Dudley Nwani The School | TN | 25.93 |
| Kaplan Career Institute | OH | 25.76 |
| Everest Institute | NY | 25.71 |
| Newbridge College - San Diego East | CA | 25.68 |
| Ntma Training Centers Of Southern California | CA | 25.48 |
| Everest College | WA | 25.27 |
| Prism Career Institute | PA | 25.00 |
Most of the schools are for profit trade schools. I see one school there that is obviously public, the West Hills Community College. Everything else there looks like a for profit school. Oh and "Institute of Technology" in California should not be confused with the California Institute of Technology.
Why do these schools have such high default rates? I don't know. One reasonable guess might be that they do not adequately prepare their students for the job market and thus present a poor educational value. But thats just one theory. I suppose there could be other potential reasons.
Now the Good news, the schools with ZERO defaults
There are a full 39 schools in the list with at least 100 borrowers and absolutely 0 defaults. Those schools are :
| Albany College Of Pharmacy And Health Sciences |
| Albany Medical College |
| Amherst College |
| Award Beauty School |
| Barnard College |
| Carleton College |
| Carroll College |
| College Of Saint Benedict |
| Concordia Seminary |
| Connecticut College |
| Davidson College |
| Eastern Virginia Medical School |
| Edward Via Virginia College Of Osteopathic Medicine |
| Erskine College |
| Haverford College |
| Illinois College Of Optometry |
| Kalamazoo College |
| Kansas City University Of Medicine And Biosciences |
| Lancaster General College Of Nursing And Health Sciences |
| Luther Seminary |
| Mayo Clinic, College Of Medicine |
| Medcentral College Of Nursing |
| Medical College Of Wisconsin |
| Muhlenberg College |
| Nebraska Methodist College Of Nursing & Allied Health |
| New England College Of Optometry (The) |
| Ross University School Of Veterinary Medicine |
| Saint Mary'S College |
| Southern California College Of Optometry |
| St. John'S College |
| Thunderbird School Of Global Management |
| Tui University |
| University Of London - London School Of Economics & Political Sci |
| University Of Massachusetts Medical Center |
| Vermont Law School |
| West Coast University |
| Williams College |
| Wisconsin Lutheran College |
| Wofford College |
I don't recognize most of these but I do see several medical schools on that list.
Now this doesn't mean you should rush out and enroll in one of the 39 schools listed above without defaults. I have no idea why their students haven't defaulted.
I was curious and looked up my own alma matters and found that one was just a bit over 1% and the other was a little over 5%. I wasn't surprised by either.
Whats the default rate for your school? Is it a surprise?
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