Four Lobo Programs Post a Perfect Graduation Success Rate

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA released the latest Division I graduation rate data, including the division’s Graduation Success Rate (GSR), and Lobo athletics fared well. UNM’s Student-Athlete Graduation Success Rate was 80%, and the four-year class average was 56%. The official GSR report for the University of New Mexico can be found here.

The Division I Board of Directors created the GSR in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students than the federal graduation rate. The federal rate counts any student who leaves a school as an academic failure, no matter whether he or she enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter school as transfer students.

The GSR formula removes from the rate student-athletes who leave school while academically eligible and includes student-athletes who transfer to a school after initially enrolling elsewhere. This calculation makes it a completer and more accurate look at student-athlete success. The federal graduation rate, however, remains the only measure to compare student-athletes with the general student body.

Four Lobo programs, Men’s Basketball, Men’s Track & Field/Cross Country, Men’s Tennis and Women’s Golf, had perfect graduation success rates. Other sports with a 90% or higher GSR include the following: Women’s Swimming (95%), Women’s Soccer (92%), Women’s Volleyball (92%) and Men’s Golf (91%).

Men’s Basketball, Men’s Track & Field/Cross Country, Men’s Tennis and Women’s Golf were tied for the best individual sport GSRs in the Mountain West. Men’s Golf and Women’s Swimming & Diving were tied for second.

The solid report comes on the heels of other academic successes for the Lobos. UNM led the Mountain West for a 10th straight year in Mountain West Scholar-Athletes last year.