NCAA Releases Graduation Success Rates for 2005 Cohort

STATESBORO, Ga. – Graduation Success Rates (GSR) for the cohort of Division I scholarship student-athletes who entered college in 2005 will be released today by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). This annual NCAA report includes two different calculations of graduation rates: 1) the Graduation Success Rate and 2) freshman-cohort rate, to indicate the percentage of freshmen who entered during a given academic year and graduated within six years. Georgia Southern’s Athletics teams recorded a 63 percent Graduation Success Rate for all Eagle scholarship student-athletes during the measured six-year time period.

The current federal graduation rate for Georgia Southern scholarship student-athletes was reported at 55 percent, remaining at that level for the second-straight reporting period. That figure is eight percentage points higher than the federal graduation rate recorded for the University for the same time period.

Women’s Tennis and Volleyball both graduated all scholarship freshmen who entered Georgia Southern in 2005, posting a 100 percent GSR for this cohort. Women’s Tennis extended its perfect score to seven-straight reporting periods while Volleyball now has four consecutive reporting periods with 100 percent GSR.

“Today’s report, along with the highest-ever grade point average earned collectively by our student-athletes during the 2011-12 academic year, confirms our educational mission and commitment to academic and athletic success,” said Georgia Southern Director of Athletics Sam Baker.  “We continue to focus our efforts to improve our academic performance and provide every student-athlete the opportunity to earn a diploma and win a championship ring. “

The Graduation Rates Report provides information about two groups of students at the University: 1) all undergraduate students who were enrolled in a full-time program of study for a degree and 2) student-athletes who received athletics aid from the university for any period of time during their entering year.

GSR was initiated by the NCAA at the request of college and university presidents who wanted to more accurately reflect the mobility among all college students. The rate measures graduation rates at Division I institutions, comparing the number of student-athletes who enrolled in a college or university and the number of those who graduated within six years. This percentage includes the student-athletes who transfer into the institutions, a major difference from the calculation of the federal government rate. The federal rate does not including incoming transfer student-athletes and counts student-athletes who transfer to other institutions as non-graduates, regardless of their status.

The GSR differs from Academic Progress Rate (APR), which calculates the year-to-year retention of student-athletes and provides a snapshot of their academic standing. GSP provides administrators with a comparative measurement of graduation rates while APR is the calculation the NCAA uses in the identification and reform of institutions that fail to meet a prescribed minimum score.

Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics, and its new “Eagles GATA” mobile app for Android and iOS.

Category: Athletics

Published on Sunday, 31 December 1899 19:00