Student Loan Default Rates
Each year, the U.S. Department of Education provides official cohort default rates among SDSU students who have graduated. The default rate is the percentage of an institution’s borrowers who enter repayment on certain federal loans during a fiscal year and default within three fiscal years. Federal fiscal years begin Oct. 1 and end Sept. 30, and each fiscal year refers to the calendar year in which it ends.
Default Rates
An institution risks losing federal financial aid if the default rate exceeds 30%; SDSU strives to minimize student default on loans and the reports show a default rate of less than 5% since FY 2013.
Title IV institutions are required to disclose cohort default rates, and the Higher Learning Commission is evaluating whether to include loan repayment outcomes as measures of student success. See Higher Learning Commission Policy.
| Cohort Fiscal Year | Official Default Rate | Number of Borrowers in Default | Number of Borrowers in Repayment | Enrollment Figures | Percentage Calculation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 2,605 | 13,937 | 18.69% |
| 2019 | 0.7 | 22 | 2,821 | 14,785 | 19.08% |
| 2018 | 2.7 | 76 | 2,793 | 15,244 | 18.32% |
Note: Official Cohort Default Rate Reports are available to the public and may be downloaded into PDF files. Use the NSLDS Search Tool and enter the name of an institution (use OPEID #003471 for SDSU). Also see SDSU Financial Aid website for additional information.
Cohort Default Rate Comparisons
| School | FY 2009 | FY 2010 | FY 2011 | FY 2012 | FY 2013 | FY 2014 | FY 2015 | FY 2016 | FY 2017 | FY 2018 | FY 2019 | FY 2020 | FY 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Dakota State University | 4.6% | 5.1% | 4.2% | 4.6% | 4.0% | 4.8% | 4.8% | 4.2% | 3.8% | 2.7% | 0.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Public (all) | 2.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||||||||
| Public (Four-Year) | 1.8% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||||||||
| Private | 1.7% | 0.0% | 0.0% | ||||||||||
| South Dakota^ | 8.5% | 10.9% | 9.1% | 8.2% | 7.6% | 8.6% | 7.9% | 6.6% | 6.6% | 5.2% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
| Totals | 11.3% | 11.5% | 10.8% | 10.1% | 9.7% | 7.3% | 2.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
^ All South Dakota institutions minus SDSU and type-three institutions.
* Default rates for FY 2020 and FY 2021 are 0% due to pauses in loan payments during the pandemic.
