Student Loan Repayment Rates Vary by Where Students Go and Whether They Complete

This post was updated on 3/20/17 to reflect repayment rates revised in January 2017

New Department of Education data released in conjunction with the College Scorecard clearly show how much student loan repayment rates vary by whether or not a student completes their program and the type of school a student attends. Repayment rates in the College Scorecard measure the percent of undergraduate federal student loan borrowers making any progress on paying down their debt (i.e. the share that have paid down at least $1 of their balance when they entered repayment).

As shown in the table below, borrowers who do not complete their program are less likely to be paying down their debt than those who graduate (34% versus 60%). We also found that, for both students who finish their programs and those who do not, repayment rates vary substantially based on the type of college they attend, with students who attend for-profit colleges being the least likely to be paying down any of their federal student loan balance.