PC Athletes Exceed National Average in Graduation Rates

The NCAA released its Academic Success Rate Report and Presbyterian College student-athletes have graduated at a higher percentage than the national average. 

The Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for students that entered PC from 2001-2004 was 86 percent, compared to 82 percent for that of all NCAA Division I institutions.  Thirteen of Presbyterian College's 15 sports exceeded the national average for that sport.  Men's soccer, women's basketball, women's golf, women's lacrosse and women's tennis had a 100 percent GSR.  Men's basketball, men's and women's cross country, women's soccer and softball had a GSR of over 90 percent.

While men's basketball graduates 66 percent of its athletes nationally, PC graduates 92 percent.  The baseball team graduates 89 percent, compared to 72 percent nationally, while the football team posted a 78 percentage, compared to 66 percent in the nation.

Freshmen student-athletes on scholarship who enrolled at PC in 2004 and graduated was at 75 percent, 20 points above the national average and nine above the general campus graduation rate of 66 percent.

"The GSR data shows that Presbyterian College has the correct priorities in order," said Director of Athletics Brian Reese.  "With a majority of teams well above the national average, this is a testament to how great our faculty and coaches are and how well we work together to achieve student-athlete success."

The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The rate holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.

Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing.  The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution's GSR cohort.  By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by 37 percent.

The most recent Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes from 2001-2002 through 2004-05. Nearly 105,000 student-athletes are included in the most recent four classes using the GSR methodology.

The NCAA began compiling these figures with the entering freshmen class of 1995.