11/18/2009 - Duke Sports Information

DURHAM, N.C. – Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Wednesday by the NCAA indicated that ninety-seven percent of freshmen student-athletes receiving scholarship aid or recruited individuals participating in programs that do not offer athletic aid graduated from Duke within six years. The GSR is based on student-athletes who entered college as freshmen in 1999-2002 and allows for the removal of those individuals from the cohort who left Duke in good academic standing.
 
A total of 15 Duke teams achieved a 100 percent GSR: men's golf, men's lacrosse, men's swimming and diving, men's tennis, women's cross country, women's indoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field, rowing, women's fencing, field hockey, women's golf, women's lacrosse, women's soccer, women's tennis and volleyball.
 
Duke's 11 remaining programs – baseball (95), men's basketball (92), men's cross country (97), men's indoor track and field (97), men's outdoor track and field (97), men's fencing (94), football (96), men's soccer (92), wrestling (94), women's basketball (92) and women's swimming and diving (97) – all achieved a GSR of 92 percent of better. 
 
Duke's 97 percent Graduation Success Rate is tops in the ACC, followed by Boston College (96), Wake Forest (93), North Carolina (87), Virginia (85), Virginia Tech (85), Clemson (82), Miami (82), Florida State (79), Maryland (76), Georgia Tech (71) and N.C. State (69). The 96 percent rate posted by Duke's football team was the highest among Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools with only six programs earning a mark of 90 or better (Notre Dame -- 96, Navy -- 93, Northwestern -- 92, Boston College -- 91, Vanderbilt -- 91).
 
In addition, the Federal Graduation Rates were released on Wednesday. Duke freshmen scholarship athletes that enrolled in 2002-03 posted an 87 percent graduation rate while the four-year class (1998-2001) average was 88 percent. The Federal Graduation Rate does not allow for the removal of those individuals from the cohort who left Duke in good academic standing, and only includes scholarship student-athletes.