Newsroom
Time to keep working on lowering student loan default rates
October 04, 2018
One of the top priorities for the financial aid office – among many – is taking action to prevent or reduce student loan defaults. After all, the impact of a high default rate can be extensive – impacting not only a school's participation in federal aid programs but also recruitment, retention, fundraising, and numerous other areas of concern to a postsecondary institution.
In a September 26 Electronic Announcement, the Department of Education announced the official 3-year draft cohort default rate decreased from 11.5 percent to 10.8 percent. While that is great news, continued default prevention efforts are needed to continue to lower the rates.
Mapping Your Future offers several default prevention tools that schools can integrate into their default prevention plan to assist their students. Since Mapping Your Future's inception in 1996, default prevention has been an important focus.
Mapping Your Future provides important default prevention services, including:
- EX$EL, an online financial education and default prevention tool for schools and students
- 22 Online Counseling sessions, which go beyond regulatory requirements
- Direct Loan entrance and Direct Loan exit PowerPoint presentations
- Resources and content, covering such topics as managing your student loan, managing your money, and student loan servicers
- Calculators, which many financial aid offices use when conducting one-on-one counseling with their students
- Webinars on-demand that provide professional development and new ideas for financial aid offices to enhance their default prevention efforts
For more information, contact the Mapping Your Future staff at feedback@mappingyourfuture.org or (800) 374-4072.