Radford University athletics continues to push academic success with the latest release of the NCAA Student-Athlete Graduation Success Rate.
Wednesday, the NCAA officially announced the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) that dates back to 2010-11, and Radford University’s Graduation Success Rate was an impressive 88 percent.
The Graduation Success Rate is a method the NCAA developed to measure academic success of a program’s student-athletes.
The GSR formula, intended to be a more complete and accurate look at student-athlete success, removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initial enrollment elsewhere. Radford University has always strived for success in the classroom and this is just another reminder of the amazing student-athletes Radford athletics has.
“Our student-athletes continue to overachieve academically.” said Stephanie Ballein, Senior Associate Athletics Director. “They deserve all the credit for their performance in the classroom. Their approach to academics is no different than game day, they truly prepare to win.”
The numbers speak for themselves, as Radford student-athletes continue to excel in the classroom at both the Big South Conference and national level.
The NCAA reported a record-high 87 percent GSR for all Division I schools, while the Big South Conference posted an 86 percent, compared to Radford athletics achieving an 88 percent GSR.
The Big South Conference GSR comes on the heels of its Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) of 66 percent — the highest in at least four years and an improvement of four percentage points from 2016. The federal graduation rate, remains the only measure to compare student-athletes with the general student body. Using this measure, NCAA student-athletes graduate at a rate 2 percentage points higher than the general student body — 68 percent compared with 66 percent. In that same regard, Radford student-athletes posted a FGR of 70 percent.
“Our coaches continue to emphasize academics as an important part of team success,” continued Ballein, “We are extremely pleased with the commitment our student-athletes put toward academic success.”
A recap of the 2016-2017 academic year:
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Overall GPA of 3.24.
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69 percent earned a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
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32 earned a GPA of 4.0.
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49 earned Dean’s List honors (3.5 or higher).
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Women’s Golf and Softball had 100 percent of its athletes earn a 3.0 or higher.
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Volleyball earned the highest GPA with a 3.71.
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Highlights from the spring 2017 semester include:
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Overall GPA of 3.27
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34 earned a 4.0 GPA
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122 earned Dean’s List honors (3.5 or higher)
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13 of 16 athletic programs with a GPA over a 3.0
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Three programs finished with a GPA over 3.5 – Volleyball, Women’s Lacrosse and Women’s Tennis
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Volleyball earned the highest GPA with a 3.64
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Women’s Lacrosse finished with a 3.55 GPA, highest in program history
–RU Athletics
