USA Today/NCAA Academic Achievement Award recognizes Notre Dame
Irish graduate 90 percent of its freshmen who enrolled in 1995.

Oct. 4, 2002

Notre Dame, Ind. – The University of Notre Dame has received a 2002 USA Today/NCAAAcademic Achievement Award for graduating 90 percent of its freshmenstudent-athletes who enrolled in 1995.

Now in their second year, the awards were presented last week to the10 institutions with the highest overall graduation rates forscholarship student-athletes who began college in the 1995-96academic year. Rice University finished first with a rate of 91percent, one percentage point higher than Notre Dame, Stanford and Duke.

The awards were announced in conjunction with the release of the 2002NCAA Graduation Rate Report. The 12th such survey issued by theassociation, the report covers student-athletes who enrolled between1992 and 1995 at Division I institutions,including 115 in Division I-A.

The NCAA bases graduation rates on the raw percentage ofstudent-athletes who entered an institution and graduated within sixyears. Students who leave or transfer, regardless of academicstanding, are considered non-graduates. In addition to the one-yearrates, the NCAA also provides a four-year average to better measuregraduation rates over time at each institution.

As it has since the NCAA survey began, Notre Dame ranked among thetop 10 in five major student-athlete graduation rate categories-overall, football, men, women and African-Americans.

Notre Dame graduated a four-year average of 85 percent of itsstudent-athletes, fourth behind Northwestern (90 percent), Duke andStanford (both at 89). The national average this year for DivisionI-A schools is 59 percent.

Among student-athletes who complete all four years of athleticeligibility at one institution, the NCAA report placed Notre Damefirst with a graduation rate of 100 percent.

The four-year average for football players is 74 percent, which ranks10th nationally. USA Today reported that Notre Dame is No. 1 when thetop 10 teams in the current college football polls are reranked bygraduation rate.

Notre Dame graduated 92 percent of all women competing in varsityathletics, to rank fourth among peer institutions in that categorybehind Northwestern at 99 percent, Stanford at 94 percent andVanderbilt at 93 percent. Among men, Notre Dame’s 82percent rate is fourth behind Duke at 87 percent, Stanford at 86percent, and Northwestern at 84 percent.

Notre Dame graduated 73 percent of its African-Americanstudent-athletes, ranking behind only Rice, Stanford, Vanderbilt andNorthwestern.

Following are the top 10 institutions in each of the categories ofall student-athletes, male student-athletes, female student-athletes,African American student-athletes, and football players:

2002 Graduation Rates Report

4-year averages for enteringclasses of 1992-95

Student-Athletes

1. Northwestern 90%2. Duke 89(tie) Stanford 894. Notre Dame 855. Rice 846. Boston College 80(tie) Vanderbilt 80(tie) Virginia 809. Penn State 7810. Wake Forest 74

Football

1. Northwestern 85%2. Duke 843. Rice 834. Stanford 825. Tulane 80(tie) Vanderbilt 807. Virginia 788. Boston College 769. Penn State 7510. Notre Dame 74

Men

1. Duke 87%2. Stanford 863. Northwestern 844. Notre Dame 82(tie) Rice 826. Virginia 777. Boston College 758. Vanderbilt 749. Penn State 72(tie) Tulane 72

Women

1. Northwestern 99%2. Stanford 943. Vanderbilt 934. Notre Dame 925. Duke 916. Boston College 87(tie) Rice 878. Penn State 869. Virginia 85(tie) Virginia Tech 85

African-Americans

1. Rice 83%(tie) Stanford 83(tie) Vanderbilt 834. Northwestern 825. Duke 816. Notre Dame 73(tie) Tulane 738. Boston College 69(tie) Penn State 6910. Virginia 68