Fordham Ranks Among Atlantic 10 Graduation Success Rate Leaders

NCAA Release
 
Bronx, N.Y. – The NCAA released the graduation rates and graduation success rates today for the 2005-2008 cohorts and Fordham University is ranked among the top schools in the Atlantic 10 with a 93 percent graduation success rate.
 
Fordham's 93 percent graduation success rate ranks fourth among all Atlantic 10 schools, behind only Davidson (98), Dayton (95) and George Washington (94).
 
Individually, 16 of the 20 Fordham scholarship programs have a graduation success rate above 90 percent, with 12 reporting a perfect 100 percent rate. The sports with a perfect graduation success rate are men's cross country, men's indoor track and field, men's outdoor track and field, women's cross country, women's indoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field, rowing, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's swimming and diving, men's tennis and women's tennis. Other teams with a 90 percent graduation success rate include baseball (96), women's swimming and diving (95), softball (94) and volleyball (91).
 
"We are proud of the NCAA graduation success rate results which are a direct result of the hard work our student-athletes put in, both on and off the playing fields," said director of athletic Dave Roach. "It is also a testament of the dedication demonstrated by our coaches, academic advisors and the entire academic support team, as well as the faculty, at Fordham."
 
In addition to the graduation success rate report, the NCAA also released the student-athlete graduation rate survey for the entering freshman of 2008-2009 and Fordham recorded an 87 percent rate, better than the overall Fordham student body rate of 80 percent and the NCAA student-athlete average of 67 percent.
 
All colleges and universities are required by NCAA legislation and federal law (the Student Right-to-Know act from 1990) to report student graduation rates, and those institutions offering athletics aid are required to report for their student-athletes as well. The NCAA acquires student-athlete graduation rate data from the Department of Education's Integrated Post-Secondary Data System Graduation Rate Survey (IPEDS-GRS).
 
The student-athlete graduation rate calculated directly based on IPEDS-GRS (which is the methodology the U.S. Department of Education requires) is the proportion of first-year, full-time student-athletes who entered a school on institutional aid (whether athletics-based aid or otherwise) and graduated from that institution within six years. This federal rate does not account for students who transfer from their original institution and graduate elsewhere; they are considered non-graduates at both the college they left and the one from which they eventually graduate.  
 
NCAA members, particularly presidents and chancellors, asked the NCAA in the early 2000s to develop a measure of student-athlete graduation success that more accurately reflects modern-day patterns of student enrollment and transfer. As a result, the NCAA created the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for Division I and the Academic Success Rate (ASR) for Division II.
 
The NCAA GSR differs from the federal calculation in two important ways. First, the GSR holds colleges accountable for those student-athletes who transfer into their school. Second, the GSR does not penalize colleges whose student-athletes transfer in good academic standing.  Essentially, those student-athletes are moved into another college's cohort.