UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State student-athletes earned a record-tying 93% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 11 programs earned perfect 100% ratings. This is the eighth consecutive year the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-tying performance in the classroom. Penn State is one of only eight schools that have won at least 10 NCAA Championships since 2013 and earned at least a 90 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in the 2024 NCAA report (California, Florida, North Carolina, Stanford, USC, UCLA, Virginia).
Both the Graduation Success Rate and Federal Graduation Rates are based upon student-athlete cohorts from 2014-17 and reflect the percentage of student-athletes earning a degree within six years. The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to account for transfer student-athletes, mid-year enrollees and others not tracked by the Federal Graduation Rates.
The NCAA's annual graduation rates report of Division I institutions across the nation revealed Penn State student-athletes at the University Park campus earned a Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of 93% to equal the school’s all-time record of 93%, which was set in the 2023 NCAA report. Nittany Lion students posted a 93% graduation rate compared to the 90% average for all Division I institutions for student-athletes entering from 2014-15 academic year through the 2017-18 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have logged a Graduation Success Rate in the 88-93% range during each of the past 18 NCAA reports, improving from 88% in the 2015 report to a record-tying 93% report in the 2024 report.
“I am so very proud of our student-athletes for their academic dedication and commitment to graduating from Penn State,” said Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft. “Our academic excellence paired with our high-level performance in competition is what makes Penn State such a special place. When student-athletes come to Penn State, they know they are here to get a degree and win championships. We are grateful for our Morgan Academic Center staff who provide our student-athletes with all the resources they need to be successful in the classroom.”
Twenty-one of the Nittany Lions’ 27 teams (the NCAA combines track and field/cross country teams into one team per gender for this reporting metric) earned a Graduation Success Rate at or above the Division I national GSR average of 90%.
The 11 Nittany Lion squads posting 100% Graduation Success Rate scores were: women’s basketball, men’s fencing, women’s fencing, field hockey, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s hockey, women’s lacrosse, men’s tennis, men’s volleyball and wrestling.
The football program posted an 89% Graduation Success Rate. This is also the 15th consecutive year the football team has surpassed the national average GSR for football.
The field hockey team earned a 100% GSR for the 20th consecutive year - every year since the NCAA implemented the release of Graduation Success Rate data in 2005. The women’s golf squad posted a 100% GSR for the ninth-straight year and the women’s hockey team had a perfect GSR score for the eighth consecutive year in which they’ve been eligible.
This is the 33rd annual release of institutional graduation rates since national "right-to-know" legislation was passed in 1990. In 2005, the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the team GSR data.
The GSR is the NCAA's more inclusive calculation of academic success among scholarship student-athletes. The NCAA rate is more accurate than the federally mandated methodology because it includes incoming transfers and students enrolling in the spring semester who receive athletic aid and graduate, and removes from the calculation student-athletes who leave an institution and were academically eligible to compete. The federal rate does neither.