About seven million undergraduates annually rely on federal loans to enroll in and complete college. While many successfully repay their loans, some struggle to stay on top of their payments and end up defaulting after 270 or more days of non-payment. Defaulting on a loan has several serious consequences, including adding significantly to the cost of a loan, ruining the borrower's credit score, and preventing educational and employment opportunities. This factsheet looks at students who entered college in 2003-04 and defaulted on a federal student loan within 12 years of entering college. While 17% of first-time students defaulted within 12 years, specific groups of students disproportionately struggled with loan repayment. Students who attended for-profit colleges were more likely to end up in default. Pell Grant recipients, most of whom have family incomes under $40,000, were more than five times as likely to end up in default as their higher income peers. First-generation students were more likely to end up in default than students whose parents had attended college. African-American students were more likely to end up in default than students of other races and ethnicities. Students were less likely to default if they completed their programs than if they dropped out, although completers in certain vulnerable groups still defaulted at high rates. Among certain vulnerable groups, students who completed were more likely to default than their less-vulnerable counterparts who dropped out.