The effectiveness of selected social, demographic and school variables on the loan default rate of community college students

The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a difference between the loan default rate of default and non-default community college students in regards to the amount of money borrowed, the completion of an loan exit interview, and ethnicity. Additionally, the researcher investigated the effect of selected social demographic and school variables of age, gender, income level, educational status, field of study, and grade point average (GPA) on the loan default rate of community college students.;The Ex-post Facto research design using the "Student Loan Information Sheet" created by the researcher was used to record the data. Three hundred and eighty-eight students from a selected community college in the southern region of Texas was used in this study. The One-way Analysis of Variance and the Three-way Analysis of Variance was used to analyze the data, with a level of significance at the .05 level and above.;The results of this study revealed that the variables ethnicity, amount of money borrowed, and a loan exit interview did not produce a significant effect on the loan default rate of community college students. Furthermore age, income level, gender and grade point average combined did not produce an impact on the loan default rate of those students. However, gender by itself did produce an effect on the loan default rate of community college students. Male students produced a higher loan default rate than their female counterparts.;Perhaps the most significant finding of the study was the influence which selecting a major field of study had on the loan default rate of community college students. Choosing a non-applied field of study increased the chances of a student going into default more often than a student who chose an applied field of study. Also field of study and educational status were found to influence the default rate of community college students. It is recommended that this study be further expanded to include a survey of default and non-default students to include several community colleges for a more comprehensive investigation of why some students repay their loans, while others go into default.