After analyzing the data and creating maps, there were some very clear patterns made in the graphs. The clearest pattern that I noticed, however, was in the top ten highest default rates. The highest default rates are located in southeast Arkansas. In general, southeast Arkansas is known as a lower-income region of Arkansas. This could explain why the default rate is so high in this area. If the people who live there don’t have a steady, or a very high level of cash flow, it is possible that those people would have greater difficulty paying back their student loans.
I also noticed that many of these schools are beauty schools. Does the financial aid process, or lack thereof, at beauty schools make for more defaults? From previous research, I know that beauty school students have considerably more debt that students at other types of institutions. Does this affect the amount of beauty school graduates that are defaulting on their loans?
For the ten lowest default rates, I noticed that these values were more spread out. I also noticed that many of these institutions were based in Little Rock. Is it possible that in order for Little Rock institutions offer great financial aid in order to compete with other institution’s enrollment, causing extremely low default rates?
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