NCAA Division I and II Graduation Success Rate and Academic Success Rate, 1995-2008 Cohorts [United States]

This study includes the federal graduation rate for all NCAA member institutions who participated in Division I or Division II sports. It also describes the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for all Division I institutions and the Academic Success Rate (ASR) of all Division II institutions. The rates included in this study are based on championship sport student-athletes who first began their full-time postsecondary education in academic years 1995-96 through 2008-09.Each cohort was tracked for 6 years for college completion. For example, the graduation status for the latest cohort (2008-09 cohort) was tracked through the spring of 2014. At their core, all three measures are based on a comparison of the number of students who entered a college or university in a given year and the number of those who graduated within six years of their initial enrollment, though each measure has a slightly different cohort definition. Federal graduation rates are based on the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Graduation Rates (IPEDS-GRS) which is defined as a six-year proportion of those student-athletes who graduated versus those who entered an institution on institutional aid. Federal graduation rates are included for both an institution's student-athletes and its general student body. In addition to the student-athlete data in the graduation-rates data, the Division I Graduation Success Rate (GSR) accounts for student-athletes who transfer into an institution while discounting student-athletes who separate from the institution and would have been academically eligible to compete had they returned. The definition of the Division II Academic Success Rate (ASR) cohort is identical to that of the GSR with the exception that it also includes freshmen who did not receive athletics aid, but did participate in athletics.