This information sheet and the 2008 NCAA Graduation-Rates Report have been prepared by the NCAA, based on data provided by the institution in compliance with NCAA Bylaw 30.1 and the Federal Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act. Each NCAA Division I college or university is required to distribute this sheet and the report to prospective student-athletes and parents, as specified in Bylaw 13.3.1.2.
The graduation-rates report provides information about two groups of students at the college or university identified at the top of the form: (1) all undergraduate students who were enrolled in a full-time program of studies for a degree, and (2) student-athletes who received athletics aid from the college or university for any period of time during their entering year. [Note: Athletics aid is a grant, scholarship, tuition waiver or other assistance from a college or university that is awarded on the basis of a student’s athletics ability.]
The report gives graduation information about students and student-athletes entering in 2001. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available. The report provides information about student-athletes who received athletics aid in one or more of eight sports categories: football, men’s basketball, baseball, men’s track/cross country, men’s other sports and mixed sports, women’s basketball, women’s track/cross country, and other women’s sports. For each of those sports categories, it includes information in six self-reported racial or ethnic groups: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic, Non-Resident Alien, White, and Other (not included in one of the other six groups or not available) and the total (all seven groups combined).
A graduation rate (percent) is based on a comparison of the number (N) of students who entered a college or university and the number of those who graduated within six years. For example, if 100 students entered and 60 graduated within six years, the graduation rate is 60 percent. It is important to note that graduation rates are affected by a number of factors: some students may work part-time and need more than six years to graduate, some may leave school for a year or two to work or travel, some may transfer to another college or university, or some may be dismissed for academic deficiencies.
Three different measures of graduation rates are presented in this report: (1) freshman-cohort rate, (2) graduation success rate (GSR) and (3) exhausted-eligibility rate. The freshman-cohort rate indicates the percentage of freshmen who entered during a given academic year and graduated within six years. The graduation success rate (GSR) adds to the first-time freshmen, those students who entered mid-year, as well as student-athletes who transferred into an institution. In addition, the GSR will subtract students from the entering cohort who are considered allowable exclusions (those who either die or become permanently disabled, those who leave the school to join the armed forces, foreign services or attend a church mission), as well as those who would have been academically eligible to compete had they returned to the institution. The exhausted-eligibility rate indicates the percentage of student athletes who used all of their athletics eligibility at this college or university and who graduated by August 2007.
1. Graduation-Rates Data. The box at the top of the graduation-rates report provides freshman-cohort graduation rates for all students and for student-athletes who received athletics aid at this college or university. Additionally, this box provides GSR data for the population of student-athletes. [Note: Pursuant to the Student-Right-to-Know Act, anytime a cell containing cohort numbers includes only one or two students, the data in that cell and one other will be suppressed so that no individual can be identified.]
a. All students. This section provides the freshman-cohort graduation rates for all full-time, degree-seeking students by race or ethnic group. It shows the rate for men who entered as freshmen in 2001-02, and the four-class average, which includes those who entered as freshmen 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01 and 2001-02. The same rates are provided for women. The total for 2001-02 is the rate for men and women combined, and the four-class average is for all students who entered in 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01 and 2001-02.
b. Student-athletes. This section provides the freshman-cohort graduation rates and also the GSRs for student-athletes in each race and ethnic group who received athletics aid. Information is provided for men and women separately and for all student-athletes.
c. Student-athletes by Sports Categories. This section provides the identified graduation rates as in 1-b for each of the eight sports categories. (The small letters indicate the value of N.)
d. Graduation Rates of Those Exhausting Eligibility. This section provides the graduation rates of student athletes who entered during the 1992-93 through 2001-02 academic years and exhausted their eligibility at the college or university. The rate indicates the percentage who had graduated by August 2007.
2. Undergraduate Enrollment Data
a. All students. This section indicates the number of full-time, undergraduate, degree-seeking students enrolled for the 2007 fall term and the number of men and women in each racial or ethnic group.
b. Student-athletes. This section identifies how many student-athletes were enrolled for the 2007 fall term and the number of men and women in each racial or ethnic group.
c. Student-athletes by Sports Categories. This section provides the enrollment data as identified in 3-b for each of the eight sports categories.
