Official Cohort Default Rates for Lenders and Guaranty Agencies

FY2003

September 2005 - Federal Student Aid

Each year the Department publishes cohort default rates based on the percentage of a lender's or guarantor's student borrowers who enter repayment on FFEL program loans during a federal fiscal year (October 1 - September 30) and default before the end of the next fiscal year.

The Department of Education releases official cohort default rates once per year. The FY 2003 official cohort default rates were mailed to lenders and guarantors on September 12, 2005. During a press release on September 12, Secretary Spellings announced that the FY 2003 national cohort default rate average is 4.5 percent. In her remarks, Secretary Spellings noted that this represents the lowest national average since the inception of the Default Management initiative in 1989.

Also available are lists of the TOP 100 lenders who currently hold FFELP loans that entered repayment in 2003 and those who originated loans that entered repayment in 2003. (These files are in Adobe's Portable Document Format or PDF. To read them you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader; if you don't have that on your computer, you can download a free copy.)

During the official cohort default rate process, guaranty agencies and lenders are given the opportunity to appeal their cohort default rate(s) with the Department. The appeal process along with other important cohort default rate information can be found in the Cohort Default Rate Guide for Guaranty Agencies and Lenders.

The rates contained at this website are based on data held by the Department at the time of the press release on September 12, 2005.

Search the lender default rate database by OPEID, name, city or state.

Lender's OPE ID	(This is your 6 digit OPE ID with 2 trailing zeros)
Lender's Name
Lender's City
Lender's State

Search the guaranty agency default rate database.

Guarantor's OPE ID
Guarantor's Name
Guarantor's City
Guarantor's State

Download

NOTE: To download a zipped file click on its download icon below. Check here for instructions on using these data files.

List of cohort default rates for all participating lenders by state.

List of cohort default rates for all participating guarantors by default rate.

Go to default rate materials on the Information for Financial Aid Professionals website.

Return to the main page for lender/guarantor default rates.

Go to the homepage for school default rates.