Terps Federal Graduation Rate Hits Record
1/19/2006 7:00:00 AM | Terrapin Athletics
Jan. 19, 2006
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - University of Maryland scholarship student-athletes who entered college in the fall of 1998 graduated at a school-record 70 percent rate, according to figures released today by the NCAA and the Department of Education.
The rates measure student-athletes who received athletics aid from the institution as freshmen and who graduated during the NCAA-mandated six-year window.
The all-time high figure continued the upward trend of graduation rates throughout the last 13 years. In 1993, Maryland's graduation rate for student-athletes was 54 percent. Maryland's rate has been over 60 percent in nine of the last 11 years.
The graduation rate for football was an impressive 79 percent, according to the figures released by the NCAA. In the four years that Ralph Friedgen has been head coach of the Maryland football team, 78 of 89 eligible seniors have reached graduation. Five Terrapin football players who played in 2005 had already graduated.
Maryland's student-athletes were within three percent of the all-time high NCAA graduation rate for the general student body. All students at the University of Maryland, College Park, graduated at a 73 percent rate, according to the figures.
In a federally mandated rate of academic success, averaging the NCAA percentages over the last four cohorts, Maryland student-athletes finished with an impressive 68 percent, compared with 56 percent for all university students at Maryland.
In addition, the NCAA's measure of graduation success rate (GSR), which eliminates those who transferred out in good academic standing and adds those on aid who transferred in, was compiled at 76 percent, equal to the national average for NCAA Division I schools. Team-by-team GSR figures were released in December.
Academic Progress Rates (APRs) are expected to be released some time next month.
Data compiled by the NCAA and the Department of Education does not include student-athletes who are not on athletics aid. This is particularly relevant at Maryland since eight men's teams were without full scholarship funding, including teams that excel in the classroom, such as men's tennis. For that reason, the 70 percent rate does not fully account for the true academic success of Maryland student-athletes. Also, student-athletes who leave the institution prior to completing their eligibility - even if they depart in good academic standing or receive degrees elsewhere - count against the original institution's graduation rate.
The exhausted-eligibility rate, indicating the percentage of scholarship student-athletes who used all their athletics eligibility at the institution and who graduated within six years, was 88 percent. It is the seventh consecutive year and the ninth time in the last 10 years the exhausted-eligibility rate has been at least 82 percent.
Six teams earned 100 percent graduation rates. Men's golf, men's swimming and diving and men's track and field joined women's track and field, field hockey and softball as programs which graduated all their student-athletes in the period.
"There is no greater priority for our department than helping our student-athletes achieve their academic goals," said athletics director Deborah A. Yow. "We have made it a departmental priority to continue to improve in this area. Our unwavering goal is to have graduation rates for student-athletes at 70 percent or higher on a consistent basis."
TERRAPIN ACADEMIC HIGHLIGHTS
* - all-time highs
