Truckee Meadows Community College’s Data-Driven Default Prevention Plan

 

School Overview

Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) is a two-year community college with five locations in northern Nevada.

Products Used

Borrower Connect™ cohort management solution and WhichWay® our financial literacy program

Customer Since

2011

“Our partnership with Student Connections has helped us get a solid handle on our default prevention strategy. We didn’t have to figure out which borrowers we needed to contact or which messages to deliver. Student Connections helped us figure that out.”
– Sharon Wurm, director of financial aid and student success, Truckee Meadows Community College

Challenge

Staff reductions and other priorities put TMCC’s default prevention activities on hold. As a result, the college’s cohort default rate was on the rise.

Solution

Using TMCC’s 2012 and 2013 student loan borrower cohort data, Student Connections assigned a default risk score to every borrower. Then, we conducted persistent early outreach to borrowers at highest risk for default.

Results

After one year of outreach to TMCC borrowers:

• The number of the high-risk and moderate-risk borrowers was cut by more than half.
• There was a seven percentage point reduction in borrowers 1-90 days delinquent in their loan payments.
• TMCC saw a five percentage point reduction in borrowers more than 90 days delinquent.
• Borrowers actively managing their loans increased by ten percentage points.
• The projected default rate decreased by six percentage points.