Almost one of every 12 recent California college graduates with student loans defaulted within two years of starting repayment -- if they ever started making payments at all, according to new data from the U.S. Department of Education.
About 21,500 former California students scheduled to started loan repayment between Oct. 1, 2008 and Sept. 30, 2009 defaulted by Sept. 30, 2010. Default rates were highest among "for-profit" colleges. Community colleges also had high default rates, but relatively few of their students took out loans, given low costs.
These charts shows two-year default rates at large California colleges -- the percentage of students who were supposed to start repaying loans in fiscal year 2009 who weren't making payments by late 2010:
Two-year default rates at large California colleges:
Note: Only includes colleges where more than 500 students were scheduled to enter loan repayment between Oct. 1, 2008 and Sept. 30, 2009.
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