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A Cohort Default Rate (CDR) measures the percentage of a school's student borrowers who default on their federal student loans within a specific timeframe (typically 3 years) after entering repayment. It is used by the U.S. Department of Education as a key accountability metric to evaluate a college's eligibility for federal funding. Colleges with high CDRs may lose future eligibility for federal grants and loans.
The cohort default rate is calculated using actual payment records of student borrowers. A 3-year cohort default rate is the percentage of a school’s borrowers who enter repayment on certain federal loans during a particular federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) and default or meet other specified conditions prior to the end of the second following fiscal year. Default occurs when a student is in repayment, but fails to make their payment for 270 days or more.
The national official CDR for federal student loans in FY 2022 is 0%. It was publicly released by the U.S. Department of Education on September 24, 2025, and remains at this level due to the extended pause on federal student loan payments and collections. For comparison, IECC federal student loan default information is as follows:
|
IECC |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cohort Fiscal Year |
Borrowers Entered Repayment |
Default Monitoring Period |
Loans in Repayment |
Loans in Default |
Loan Default Rate |
|
2022 |
10/1/21 - 9/30/22 |
10/1/21 - 9/30/24 |
239 |
0 |
0% |
|
2021 |
10/1/20 - 9/30/21 |
10/1/20 - 9/30/23 |
280 |
0 |
0% |
|
2020 |
10/1/19 - 9/30/20 |
10/1/19 - 9/30/20 |
325 |
1 |
.31% |
