“The rate at which students default on federal student loans has risen for a second year in a row, from 5.2 percent to 6.9 percent, preliminary data from the Education Department indicate. In all, 231,659 students who entered repayment on their student loans in the 2007 fiscal year defaulted within the next two years, the draft data show. As usual, the rate was higher for students who attended for-profit institutions (11.3 percent) than for students who attended public colleges (6.1 percent) or private colleges (3.8 percent). However, the rate at which students defaulted in all three sectors increased by a similar amount: between 1.3 and 1.6 percentage points …” (more)
[Kelly Field, Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 March]