NCAA Announces Men's Water Polo Graduation Success Rates
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Student-athletes wishing to play men's varsity water polo should consider the information recently released by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as the organization announced the latest Division I and II Graduation Success Rates.
The report shows that East Coast institutions have the best graduation rate as Brown University, Bucknell University, Fordham University, Princeton University and St. Francis College (N.Y.) recorded perfect Graduation Success Rates to top the list. Only the University of California-Davis and Stanford University proved the equal of the East Coast institutions.
Overall, the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) has seven of the Top 10 success scores in the nation with the United States Naval Academy ranking ninth with a 95, while the University of California-Los Angeles completes the Top 10 with a 90.
“Success for student-athletes is ultimately measured by how well they do in the classroom,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert. “There is room for greater progress, and we continue to work hard to that end, but today we celebrate this important milestone.”
On a national level, water polo continues to rate among the best performing sports ranking fourth with a 85 Graduation Success Rate to trail only lacrosse (88), gymnastics (87) and tennis (86) and rank well in front of the NCAA average score for all sports of 80.
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, as compared to about 76,500 in the federal rate.
The NCAA also has released the latest Division II graduation rate data, including the division’s Academic Success Rate. This is the sixth year the NCAA has released the Division II ASR, which is similar to the Division I GSR and also includes student-athletes not receiving athletically related financial aid.
In the CWPA, Salem International University (86), former league member Queens College (N.Y.) (80), Mercyhurst College (62) and Gannon University (60) rate between the University of California-Davis (100), University of California-San Diego (95) and California Baptist University (60).
Division III student-athletes are not covered by the federal graduation rate methodology, because it only includes student-athletes who receive athletics financial aid. Therefore, the data for Division III are used to analyze success rates within the student bodies. In all, students who entered Division III institutions in the fall of 2004 showed a federal graduation rate of 65 percent, while the latest four-year average is 63 percent.
The Division III Presidents Council in 2009 approved exploring the possibility of calculating graduation rate and academic-success rates for Division III student-athletes. A pilot program using graduation-rate data collected from volunteering institutions began this past spring. Results are expected later this fall.
| Men | ||
| Division I | ||
| Team | GSR | FGR |
| Brown University | 100 | |
| Bucknell University | 100 | 100 |
| UC-Davis | 100 | 100 |
| Fordham University | 100 | 100 |
| Harvard University | 100 | |
| Princeton University | 100 | |
| St. Francis College | 100 | 100 |
| Stanford University | 100 | 100 |
| U.S. Naval Academy | 95 | |
| UCLA | 90 | 90 |
| Santa Clara University | 89 | 71 |
| USC | 89 | 79 |
| U.S. Air Force Academy | 89 | |
| UC-Santa Barbara | 86 | 71 |
| Loyola Marymount University | 82 | 78 |
| George Washington University | 78 | 63 |
| Iona College | 75 | |
| Pepperdine University | 75 | 71 |
| UC-Berkeley | 69 | 67 |
| Mercyhurst College | 62 | 40 |
| Long Beach State University | 57 | 60 |
| University of the Pacific | 50 | 29 |
| UC-Irvine | 44 | 36 |
| Division II | ||
| Team | ASR | FGR |
| UC-Davis | 100 | 100 |
| UC-San Diego | 95 | |
| Salem International University | 86 | 67 |
| Queens College (N.Y.) | 80 | 71 |
| Mercyhurst College | 62 | 40 |
| Gannon University | 60 | 60 |
| California Baptist University | 60 | 43 |
| GSR - Graduation Success Rate; FGR - Federal Graduation Rate; ASR - Academic Success Rate | ||