As Cowlitz County’s blue-collar economy struggled in recent
years, students poured into Lower Columbia College in record
numbers. Now, many of those former students are defaulting on
student loans at surprisingly high rates, sometimes within nine
months of graduating.
Of 439 LCC graduates or dropouts who were supposed to make
student loan payments in 2009, 87 — or 20 percent — defaulted on
student loan payments in 2009, the most recent year for which data
is available.
LCC’s default rate is among the highest in Washington state, but
other colleges and universities are seeing dramatic jumps in
default rates as debt-laden students encounter a struggling state
economy.
Lisa Matye Edwards, vice president of student success at LCC,
said Cowlitz County’s high unemployment rate led to a crush of new
students at LCC, many of them non-traditional students who had lost
their jobs and were trying to learn new skills before attempting to
re-enter the workforce, she said. Some of those students had
trouble finding steady jobs when they graduated and were unable to
repay their student loans, she said.
“Students who get themselves caught in that cycle often have
other things going on too,” Edwards said. “They have to decide
between paying loans, and
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