UW Student-Athletes Ahead of National Average in Grad Rates
Sept. 3, 2003
Seattle - Student-athletes at Washington are graduating above the national average for other Division I programs according to the latest graduation rate figures released by the NCAA.
According to the NCAA report of the federally mandated Graduation Rates, 70 percent of all Husky student-athletes who entered Division I colleges and universities in 1996 graduated in the six-year window established by the U.S. Department of Education as the standard. The new rate is three percentage points higher than a year ago and eight percentage points better than student-athletes at other Division I institutions.
Washington's graduation rate for those individuals (434) who have exhausted their eligibility since entering the University in 1987 was 89 percent.
Using the freshman class of 1996-97, Husky student-athletes graduated at 70 percent over the six-year period used to compile the report. The national average for Division I institutions was 62 percent.Washington's graduation rate was the highest since the Department of Education began tracking graduation in 1984. The Division I mark of 62 percent was also the highest since the origination of the report.
The Huskies' graduation rate for its student athletes trails the average for all University of Washington students by just one percentage point.
'Our goal is to match or exceed the graduation rate for our general student body, so we are pleased with the report,' said Husky athletic director Barbara Hedges. 'We have made significant strides in our academic graduation rate in recent years and we will continue to concentrate on this area and provide the resources to make this a priority. We will break ground on a new $18 million academic center/crewhouse in January that will be a tremendous boost to those efforts.'
UW's football grad rate was 67 percent (second best among Pac-10 schools), which was 13 percent better than the national average.
The complete Graduation Rates Report is available at http://www.ncaa.org/grad_rates/2003/.
Comparison Among Pac-10 Schools
SA ExhaustingSchool All-Students S-A Football EligibilityAll Division I 62 59 54 82Arizona 55 60 33 77Arizona State 52 65 54 88California 84 73 44 84Oregon 58 62 50 92Oregon State 59 51 50 90Stanford 93 84 82 96UCLA 85 64 61 85USC 76 56 45 84Washington 71 70 67 89Washington State 62 67 60 91S-A: Student-Athletes