Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell in Top 10 Nationally in Student-Athlete Graduation Rates Over a 4-Year Period
11/18/2009 7:00:00 AM | Bison Club
Nov. 18, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Continuing a long-standing tradition of success in the NCAA's annual graduation rates survey, released Wednesday afternoon, Bucknell's four-class average for student-athletes entering between 1999-2000 and 2002-03 ranks eighth nationally.
With a four-class average of 87 percent, Bucknell trails only Holy Cross (93 percent), Davidson (91), Stanford (91), Notre Dame (90), Colgate (88), Duke (88) and Northwestern (88) among all Division I institutions reporting federal graduation rates (the Ivy League and military academies do not report federal graduation rates).
Also on Wednesday, the NCAA released its own Graduation Success Rate (GSR) data, which differs from the federal graduation-rate formula in that the GSR factors in transfer students who do graduate, and does not penalize schools for losing transfers who leave in good academic standing. Those findings revealed that 17 Bucknell varsity programs boasted perfect 100 percent GSRs, counting student-athletes who entered school between the 1999-2000 and 2002-03 academic years. Of Bucknell's 23 varsity sports considered in the study (cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field are combined, for GSR purposes), 21 had a GSR of 89 percent or better.
The programs with GSR ratings of 100 percent are baseball, women's basketball, men's and women's golf, women's cross country/track & field, women's rowing, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, volleyball, men's and women's water polo and wrestling. Football and men's basketball both have GSRs of 91, among the highest in the nation.
Bucknell's overall GSR of 95 percent ranks in a tie for 16th-best nationally. The national average is 79 percent.
Bucknell has topped the nation in graduation rates on numerous occasions, including in 2003, when it received a USA Today-NCAA Academic Achievement Award with a perfect 100 percent figure.
Bucknell sponsors 27 intercollegiate sports at the Division I level. It is a charter member of the Patriot League and has won the league's all-sports championship in 15 of the 19 years it has been contested, including 2008-09. Bucknell ranks fifth in Division I in producing Academic All-Americans.
