According to the latest NCAA graduation rate report, Penn State student athletes continue to be among the best in the nation.
The NCAA's annual study of institutions nationwide revealed that Penn State student-athletes had a graduation rate of 76 percent compared to a mark of 57 percent for all Division I institutions. The survey documented the entering freshman class of 1991-92 who earned degrees within six years.
The graduation rate for all Penn State students was 81 percent in the sample period. The four-year average rate (that is the average of four years' worth of six-year graduation rates) for University Park students and student-athletes was 79 percent, well above the national averages of 56 percent for all students and 58 percent for student-athletes.
Especially noteworthy were the performances of the Nittany Lion and Lady Lion basketball teams, both of which posted graduation rates of 100 percent. Nationwide, the rate for men's basketball was 41 percent and for women's basketball 66 percent.
The Penn State football team's 68 percent rate continued to track well above the national norm of 50 percent. The four-year average rate for Nittany Lion gridders was 74 percent.
The members of Penn State's 14 women's teams demonstrated particularly impressive academic achievement, logging a rate of 89 percent, which was 22 points better than the national average (67 percent) and six percentage points ahead of their peers in the University student body generally (83 percent).
The Penn State male athletes rate of 68 percent trailed that of the general Penn State male student population (80 percent) but bested the national average (51 percent) by 17 points.
For the eighth straight year, Penn State's graduation rate for African American student-athletes was far superior to the African American figures for Division I. Penn State's African American athletes compiled a figure of 79 percent. At all institutions in the NCAA compilation, the African American percentile was 44 percent.
Of the Penn State student-athletes in the NCAA studies from 1983-84 through 1991-92 who exhausted their eligibility, 92 percent left with their diplomas.
The NCAA graduation rate report was constructed by the NCAA staff based on data collected from the Integrated Postsecondary Educational Statistics graduation rate survey. This year marks a departure from the past when the NCAA compiled and reported the rates. Starting in 1997, the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education collected the information to supply to all postsecondary educational institutions as a part of the survey effort.
This is the eighth release of institutional graduation rates since national "right-to-know" legislation was passed in 1990.
Here is a comparison of key categories in the 1998 graduation rate survey, which covers the entering class of 1991-92 who earned degrees within six years: