Background for NSLDS Reports Import

Reporting of Cohort Default Rates

A cohort default rate (CDR) is the percentage of an institution's borrowers who enter repayment on certain loans during a federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30) and subsequently default on their loans before the end of the next fiscal year. Loans included in the CDR calculation include Federal Stafford and Direct Loans. Not included are PLUS and Perkins loans. The purpose of reporting the CDR is to alert institutions about the percentage of students who might have trouble repaying their loans.

The Department of Education calculates CDRs twice each year and sends CDR reports to institutions. A draft CDR report is usually made available in February.

The Department transmits CDR data to institutions enrolled in the electronic Cohort Default Rate (eCDR) notification process via the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG). Institutions not enrolled in the eCDR notification process can access their CDR data on the “Reports” tab on the NSLDS Professional Access website. All institutions are allowed five business days to report any problems with their CDR data.

Each eCDR package includes.

  • Cover Letter (message class SHDRLROP)

  • Reader-Friendly Loan Record Detail Report (message class SHCDRROP)

  • Extract-Type Loan Record Detail Report (message class SHCDREOP)

The Loan Record Detail Report (LRDR) contains information on the loans that were used to calculate an institution’s CDR. The LRDR includes:

  • Number of borrowers who entered repayment during a given fiscal year

  • Loan status of those borrowers

Institutions need to review the LRDR to ensure that the loan data used to calculate the CDR is accurate. Institutions have the opportunity to identify and correct any inaccuracies by submitting an incorrect data challenge. Institutions can also challenge a potential loss of eligibility or potential placement on provisional certification by submitting a participation rate index challenge. Timelines for submitting challenges, adjustments, and appeals begin on the sixth business day following the announced transmission date.

After processing any challenges, appeals, and adjustments to the draft CDR, the Department calculates and releases the official CDR. The Department uses the official CDR to determine if an institution is subject to sanctions (e.g., loss of eligibility to receive Title IV funds) or eligible for benefits. Official CDR reports are generally released to institutions and the public six months after the release of the draft CDR (no later than September 30th each year).

For more details about Cohort Default Rate reporting, refer to https://fsapartners.ed.gov/knowledge-center/topics/default-prevention-resource-information.

Import Files

The Department of Education and NSLDS provide Cohort Default Rate and the Delinquent Borrower reports to the institutions that have loan borrowers in repayment. Institutions can import these reports into their Anthology Student database and determine if there are any discrepancies between the imported reports and the financial aid data internally maintained by the institutions.

Loan Record Detail Report

The Loan Record Detail Report (LRDR) provides information about all Direct Loan and/or FFEL program loans for an institution. The report includes loans that are serviced by all servicers, including the federal loan servicers, and provides identifying information about the servicer for each loan.

Institutions can choose to receive all the data at the main branch level of the 6-digit OPEID or enter a branch location by including the 8-digit OPEID. The data can be: The data can be:

  • Filtered by

    • Repayment begin and end date range of three years or less

    • Loan program (Direct Loan, FFEL, or both).

    • Loan status categories of All, Open, Closed, Defaulted, Payment Suspended (deferment, forbearance), In-School, In-Repayment, Open Disability, and Un-reinsured

  • Sorted by SSN or Last/First Name

Anthology Student enables you to import the Extract-Type Loan Record Detail Report (message class SHCDREOP). The record layout is defined in the School Cohort Default Rate History Report.

Delinquent Borrower Report

NLSDS provides the Delinquent Borrower Report (DELQ). This report includes borrowers who have been reported as delinquent in making loan payments to one of the federal loan servicers. The report does not include borrowers who have loans held by Guaranty Agencies.

The report contains the student's demographic data including address, phone number, and email address, as well as loan data including date, type, total outstanding balance, and current monthly payment amount.

Institutions can choose to receive all the data at the main branch level of the 6-digit OPEID or enter a branch location by including the 8-digit OPEID. The data can be:

  • Filtered by federal loan servicer, cohort year, and one or more delinquency periods

  • Sorted by SSN or Last/First Name

Anthology Student enables you to import the (Extract: Fixed Length Delinquent Borrower file (message class DELQFFOP). The record layout is defined in the Delinquent Borrower Report Extract Record Layouts for Schools (DELQ01 and DELQ03).