Graduates of West Michigan colleges and universities have some of the lowest default rates on student loans in the state and the nation according to a report from the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings yesterday announced that the 2005 national student loan cohort default rate fell to 4.6 percent from last year's rate of 5.1 percent.
At Calvin College the default rate for the 2005 fiscal year was significantly less than the national average at 1.1 percent. 
Other local schools with numbers well below the national average include Calvin Theological Seminary (0.0%), Grace Bible (0.0%), Hope (0.3%), Aquinas (1.0%), Kuyper (1.2%), Grand Valley (1.4%) and Cornerstone (2.0%). 
Calvin director of admissions and financial aid Dale Kuiper says the low loan default rate for Calvin graduates is encouraging. "While the focus of a Calvin education," he says, "is to prepare students for a lifetime of experiences, not just one job, it is good to know that our graduates can and do meet their financial commitments." 
He adds that part of the reason graduates of Calvin are able to maintain a low default rate is that a Calvin education is affordable and the school's scholarship and financial aid program is effective. Kuiper also notes that a college graduate will make a million dollars more over the course of her career than someone without a college degree. 
Spellings said that a record number of loan consolidations contributed to the decline in the 2005 default rate, which represent the percentage of borrowers in the Federal Family Education Loan and William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan programs who began loan repayments between October 1, 2004, and September 30, 2005, and who defaulted before September 30, 2006. 
"During that period," said Spellings, "borrowers took advantage of the opportunity to lock in record low interest rates by consolidating their federal student loans. Consolidation combines multiple loans into a single loan with new repayment terms that may extend repayment from the standard 10 years to 30 years, thus lowering monthly payments and improving borrowers' ability to manage student loan obligations."