INDIANAPOLIS – Gonzaga student-athletes are graduating at a rate of 97 percent according to the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) numbers released by the NCAA on Tuesday, including 11 GU teams that achieved a 100 percent graduation rate.
For comparison with Div. 1 student-athletes, the Federal Graduation Rate is 69 percent and the NCAA GSR average is 89 percent, while the West Coast Conference average is at 92 percent.
Eleven Gonzaga squads achieved perfect 100-percent GSR scores, including women's basketball for the seventh straight year and men's basketball for the sixth straight year. GU women's cross country and track and field and women's golf each had a perfect 100-percent GSR for the 18th straight year, while men's cross country and track and field (15 straight), men's tennis (14 straight), men's soccer (13 straight), women's soccer (12 straight, 14th time overall), and men's golf (11 straight) all extended their impressive streaks of 100-percent GSR scores. Volleyball achieved the 100-percent GSR score honor for the second straight year, and women's tennis earned the honor as well.
Twelve of GU's 13 countable programs finished above the national average in their respective sports. Ten of those teams finished at least five percentage points better.
Tuesday's update is based on information obtained from the 2022 NCAA Graduation Rate Report. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available. A graduation rate (percent) is based on a comparison of the number 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, the graduation rate is 60 percent.
It should be noted that graduation rates are affected by a number of factors: some students transfer to another college, some may be dismissed for academic deficiencies, some may have to work part-time and need more than six years to graduate.
The Graduation Success Rate (GSR) subtracts students from the entering cohort who are considered allowable exclusions (those who either die or become personally disabled, those who leave 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.
This year marks the 32nd release of institutional graduation rates since Federal Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act legislation was passed in 1990. In 2005, the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the GSR in order to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes.
