UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State student-athletes recorded a record-tying 92% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 10 programs earned perfect 100% ratings. This is the sixth consecutive year the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-tying performance in the classroom.
Both the Graduation Success Rate and Federal Graduation Rates are based upon classes from 2012-15 and reflect the percentage of student-athletes earning a degree within six years. The NCAA developed the GSR to account for transfer student-athletes, mid-year enrollees and others not tracked by the Federal Graduation Rates.
The NCAA's annual graduation rates report of Division I institutions across the nation revealed Penn State student-athletes at the University Park campus earned a GSR of 92% to tie the school’s all-time record of 92, which was previously set in the 2020 and 2021 NCAA report. Nittany Lion students posted a 92% graduation rate compared to the 89% average for all Division I institutions for students entering from 2012-13 through the 2015-16 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have logged a GSR in the 88-92% range during each of the past 16 NCAA reports, improving from 88% in the 2015 report to a record-breaking 92% report in the last three reports.
“We are so proud of our student-athletes for continuing to carry the tradition of academic excellence at Penn State,” said Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft. “I am impressed with our student-athletes’ commitment to produce championship caliber results in the classroom and in competition. We are fortunate to have a great Morgan Academic staff who provides our student-athletes with all of the resources they need to be successful in the classroom.”
Twenty-one of the Nittany Lions’ 27 teams (men’s and women’s track and field/cross country teams combined) earned a GSR at or above the Division I national GSR average of 89%.
The 10 Nittany Lion squads posting 100% GSR scores were: women’s fencing, field hockey, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s hockey, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s volleyball and wrestling.
The field hockey and women’s tennis teams earned a 100% GSR for the 18th consecutive year — every year since the NCAA implemented the release of GSR data in 2005. The women’s golf squad posted a 100% GSR for the seventh-straight year and the women’s hockey team had a perfect GSR score for the sixth consecutive year in which it's been eligible.
This is the 32nd annual release of institutional graduation rates since national "right-to-know" legislation was passed in 1990. In 2005, the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the team GSR data.
The GSR is the NCAA's more inclusive calculation of academic success among scholarship student-athletes. The NCAA rate is more accurate than the federally mandated methodology because it includes incoming transfers and students enrolling in the spring semester who receive athletic aid and graduate and deletes from the calculation student-athletes who leave an institution and were academically eligible to compete. The federal rate does neither.