For general methodology notes, view About Us.
Student Loan Repayment dataset
To build the universe of institutions for the Student Loan Repayment (Repay) dataset, we began with the College Scorecard data on cohort default rate (cdr3), the newly released borrower-based repayment rates (federal undergraduate loans only, 2 years after entering repayment: bbrr2_fed_ug_n / _dflt / _dlnq / _fbr / _dfr / _noprog / _makeprog / paidinfull / _discharge), the no-longer-updated repayment rate on federal student loans for pell recipients and non-recipients (pell_rpy_5yr_rt, nopell_rpy_5yr_rt), minority serving institution designations (hbcu, pbi, annhi, tribal, aanapii, hsi, nanti), and institutions’ predominant degree (preddeg) used for recategorizing sector. To avoid potentially duplicative data as a result of certain institutional reporting practices, only “main” campuses (main == 1) were included. The most recently reported data (most recent institution data as of January 19, 2021) were used. Cohort default rate data reflect borrowers who entered repayment on their federal student loans between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016, and who defaulted before September 30, 2018. Borrower-based repayment rates data reflect pooled cohorts from academic years 2015-2017; these elements were renamed for simplicity:
- bbrr2_fed_ug_n renamed to rpy_fed2ug_count
- bbrr2_fed_ug_dflt renamed to rpy_fed2ug_dflt
- bbrr2_fed_ug_dlnq renamed to rpy_fed2ug_dlnq
- bbrr2_fed_ug_fbr renamed to rpy_fed2ug_fbr
- bbrr2_fed_ug_dfr renamed to rpy_fed2ug_dfr
- bbrr2_fed_ug_noprog renamed to rpy_fed2ug_noprog
- bbrr2_fed_ug_makeprog renamed to rpy_fed2ug_makeprog
- bbrr2_fed_ug_paidinfull renamed to rpy_fed2ug_paidinfull
- bbrr2_fed_ug_discharge renamed to rpy_fed2ug_discharge
The element makingprogress_plus was created to streamline review of the share of students in progressing or resolved repayment statuses (making progress, paid in full, and discharged). The associated flag elements (makingprogress_plus_flag) provides an indicator of institutions for which the makingprogress_plus value is 50% or higher.
The Repay data were then joined to IPEDS Header (HD2019) data using the combination of OPE ID (8 digit) and IPEDS unit ID to bring in basic institutional characteristics such as name and state.
The resulting combined working data were then joined to the following IPEDS survey data using IPEDS unit ID to add contextualizing data:
- 12-month unduplicated headcount data (EFFY2019) to get total undergraduate enrollment values (efytotlt)
Student Financial Aid (SFA1819) to get the share of undergraduates receiving federal student loans (ufloanp) and Pell grants (upgrntp)
| Elements | Source | Source Year | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| opeid | IPEDS (all) | - | OPE ID (8-digit) |
| unitid | IPEDS (all) | - | IPEDS unit ID |
| instnm | IPEDS HD2019 | 2019 | Institution name |
| stabbr | IPEDS HD2019 | 2019 | State abbreviation |
| sector | IPEDS HD2019 | 2019 | Institutional sector reflects the cross of institutional level (2-year, 4-year, less-than-2-year when using the Scorecard's predominant degree variable) and institutional control (public, not for profit, for profit) Pub4yr - Public 4-year or above Pub2yr - Public 2-Year Pub<2yr - Public less-than-2-year NFP4yr - Private nonprofit 4-year or above NFP2yr - Private for-profit 2-year NFP<2yr - Private nonprofit less-than-2-year FP4yr - Private for-profit 4-year or above FP2yr - Private for-profit 2-year FP<2yr - Private for-profit less-than-2-year |
| efytotlt | IPEDS EFFY2019 | 2019 | Grand total of student 12-month for credit enrollment, undergraduate & graduate |
| rpy_fed2ug_count | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Count of students in repayment cohort (undergraduates, federal loans, 2yrs after entering repayment) |
| makingprogress_plus | Calculated | Sum of the shares (%) of the repayment cohort in the following repayment statuses: making progress, paid in full, or discharged | |
| makingprogress_plus_flag | Calculated | Flag for institution with makingprogress_plus values greater than or equal to 50% | |
| rpy_fed2ug_makeprog | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Share of repayment cohort reported making progress |
| rpy_fed2ug_paidinfull | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Share of repayment cohort reported paid in full |
| rpy_fed2ug_discharge | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Share of repayment cohort reported discharged |
| cdr3 | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Three-year Cohort Default Rate |
| pell_rpy_5yr_rt | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Five-year repayment rate among Pell recipients; 2011 & 2012 pooled earnings cohort |
| nopell_rpy_5yr_rt | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Five-year repayment rate among Pell non-recipients; 2011 & 2012 pooled earnings cohort |
| ufloann | IPEDS SFA1819 | 2019 | Number of undergraduate students awarded federal student loans |
| upgrntp | IPEDS SFA1819 | 2019 | Percent of undergraduate students awarded Pell grants |
| hbcu | College Scorecard | Most Recent Institution-Level (Jan 19, 2021) | Flag for Historically Black College or University |