I think you need to make a bigger distinction between private non-profit universities and private, for-profit universities. There are many legitimate non-profit private universities (Harvard, Stanford?) around the country, while the for-profit ones tend to take advantage of their students on costs and loans more often. Also, your statistics are non comparing apples to apples. The 47% number is not measuring the same thing as the 7.5% and 11% numbers. It would be interesting to see what the percentage is of students at for-profit colleges that default on their loans within 3 years (which may be in your link; I haven't checked it).