Jason Cohn

In 2023, the US Supreme Court banned the use of race in college admissions decisions around the same time that a wave of state and institutional actions also intensified scrutiny on who was enrolling in certain colleges and universities. In the wake of these actions, the higher education community has paid careful attention to how enrolling student demographics have changed at selective institutions. But a focus on enrollment data alone cannot give us a full picture.

Over the past six years, the federal student loan program has been substantially altered by pandemic and policy changes, disrupting payments and creating confusion for borrowers. These changes include regulatory and statutory reforms that have dramatically altered student loan access, repayment, and forgiveness options for borrowers.

After more than three years of the COVID-19 payment pause, most federal student loan borrowers were required to start making payments in late 2023. Protections from negative consequences of missed payments were removed in late 2024. In this brief, I use credit bureau data to assess borrowers’ progress making payments in the two years since the end of the payment pause and compare repayment outcomes with those in prepandemic years.