A student is considered to be in default on a student loan if they have not made a payment in more than 270 days. The official student loan default rate for a school is calculated by measuring how many students are in default three years after graduation. Note that the default rate only takes into account federal loans, not private.

According to College Factual, Loan default rates can serve students as an indicator for college affordability. The Fiscal Year 2019’s 3 Year Cohort Default Rate (CDR) for Sam Houston State University is 1.3%. This includes 4,790 borrowers in repayment during the 2017 Fiscal Year. Those students were tracked over a three year period and 63 of them defaulted on their student loans.

The Department of Education does not have the national FY 2019 3 year CDR published, so for comparison, SHSU’s FY 2018 3 year CDR was 6.2%. This included 294 defaulted borrowers out of 4,677 in repayment. The national 3 year CDR was 7.3%.

With the pause of student loan repayments, there is a nationwide decrease in the 3 year CDR since borrowers are not required to make payment. See Deferral of Accountability Metrics: Unintended Consequences of the Student Loan Payment Pause.