Rattlers Among Lone Star Leaders in Graduation Rate

SAN ANTONIO — The NCAA recently announced its annual Academic Success Rate report and St. Mary's University appeared close to the top of the lists among Lone Star Conference teams in several sports.
 
The NCAA determined the overall Division II ASR was 76% for the second straight year. Male athletes have a 69% ASR, while females are at 88%. St. Mary's finished well above the average and fourth in the Lone Star Conference with an overall ASR of 84%.
 
Four sports achieved a perfect 100% ASR in Men's Golf, Softball, Women's Golf and Women's Tennis. The Women's Golf team also posted a perfect 100% FGR (Federal Graduation Rate). The Volleyball team also leads the Lone Star Conference at 95%.
 
"I am once again incredibly proud of our student-athletes achievements in the classroom," said Executive Director of Athletics Robert Coleman. "To have three teams achieve a perfect 100% Academic Success Rate with four teams leading their respective sports within the Lone Star Conference shows the commitment our student-athletes have to excel not just on the field of play but also in the classroom."
 
The Rattlers department also placed above the national average in FGR at 64%, four points above the national average. That number is the second highest in the Lone Star Conference. Women's Soccer leads the LSC with 79%, while Baseball (59%), Men's Golf (60%), Men's Soccer (64%) and Women's Tennis (60%) all rank second in the 17-team league.
 
Since joining the Lone Star Conference, the Rattlers have led the league with the best Federal Graduation Rate in three of the four years. St. Mary's led with a 72 FGR for the 2013 Cohort Year and tied for the highest FGR with St. Edward's for both the 2014 Cohort (73) and 2015 Cohort (71).
 
"To be able to succeed in intercollegiate competition while fully embracing the pursuit of a transformational liberal arts education can be challenging, but the NCAA data demonstrates that our student-athletes embrace this challenge," Coleman said. "It also indicates that our student-athletes are enjoying their experience within our program, with our six-year Federal Graduation Rate exceeding the national averages and allowing us to be either first or second for numerous teams within the LSC."
 
The NCAA update is based on information obtained from the 2023 NCAA Graduation Rate Report. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available. A graduation rate (percent) is based on a comparison of the number of students who entered a college or university and the number of those who graduated within six years. For example, if 100 students entered and 60 graduated, the graduation rate is 60 percent.
For Division II graduation rates, the NCAA in 2006 developed the Academic Success Rate (ASR), which is similar to the Division I GSR but also includes freshmen who did not receive athletics aid but did participate in athletics. As the GSR does in Division I, the ASR in Division II reveals student-athlete graduation rates that are much higher than those recorded by the federal methodology.
The most recent Academic Success Rate for the incoming class of 2016 reveals that 77% of Division II student-athletes graduate within six years of initial enrollment. The four-year rolling ASR for the 2013-16 classes is 76%.
The Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) is required by law to be calculated and published for all full-time college students and separately for student-athletes who receive athletically-related aid. 
The federal calculation has long been considered an outdated graduation measure in part due to its failure to account for transfer (transfers-out are counted as non-graduates; transfers-in are not included in the calculation). FGR is best characterized as the percentage of students entering directly from high school who graduate from their initial college.