Oct. 25, 2012

NCAA GSR Release & Data

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - In graduation data released by the NCAA Thursday, Illinois student-athletes in the 2005-06 cohort have a graduation success rate (GSR) of 89 percent and a Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) of 74 percent, the second-best GSR in the Big Ten behind only Northwestern (97 percent). Six Illini teams posted perfect GSR scores for the cohort that entered from 2002-05: men's basketball, men's golf, men's gymnastics, women's golf, women's gymnastics, soccer and softball. Illinois' overall GSR of 89 percent ties the second-highest mark in school history (2004 cohort) and is just below the school record of 90 percent set by the 1998 cohort.

Soccer, women's golf and women's gymnastics have recorded perfect GSR scores of 100 in all eight years of data provided by the NCAA, and softball also has a six-year perfect score streak. This marks the third-straight year that men's basketball and men's gymnastics have posted a perfect 100 GSR.

The GSR includes all athletically-aided student-athletes, including transfers, but subtracts those student-athletes that leave the institution eligible. The FGR assesses only first-time full-time freshmen in a given cohort and only counts them as academic successes if they graduate from their institution of initial enrollment within a six-year period.

The overall Division I freshman cohort graduation rates are 65 percent for student-athletes and 63 percent for the student body, while the four-class average is 64 percent for student-athletes and 63 percent for the student population. The national GSR for the cohort is 80 percent.