NCAA Releases Women's Water Polo Graduation Success Rates
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Looking to attend college and playe collegiate water polo on the varsity level? The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently released the organization's Women's Graduation Success Rates in Division I, with some surprising results.
Overall, 20 teams recorded perfect success rates of 100 led by Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) institutions Brown University, Bucknell University, George Washington University, Hartwick College, Harvard University, Princeton University and the University of Maryland as the CWPA recorded the most perfect scores of any conference.
Joining the CWPA institutions at the top of the list are California State University-Bakersfield, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Davis, Colorado State University, Iona College, Marist College, University of the Pacific, St. Francis College (N.Y.), Santa Clara University, Siena College, Stanford University and Villanova University.
The University of Michigan (95) and Indiana University (88) complete the CWPA institutions on the 33 team list.
“Success for student-athletes is ultimately measured by how well they do in the classroom,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert. “There is room for greater progress, and we continue to work hard to that end, but today we celebrate this important milestone.”
On a national level, water polo continues to rate among the best performing sports ranking sixth with a 91 Graduation Success Rate to trail lacrosse (94), field hockey (94), skiing (94), fencing (93), gymnastics (92) and crew (91), while ranking well in front of the NCAA average score for all sports of 80.
The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to more accurately assess the academic success of student-athletes. The rate holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate. The GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport.
Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.
By counting incoming transfer students and midyear enrollees, the GSR increases the total number of student-athletes tracked for graduation by 37 percent.
The most recent Division I Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering classes from 2001-2002 through 2004-05. Nearly 105,000 student-athletes are included in the most recent four classes using the GSR methodology, as compared to about 76,500 in the federal rate.
The NCAA also has released the latest Division II graduation rate data, including the division’s Academic Success Rate. This is the sixth year the NCAA has released the Division II ASR, which is similar to the Division I GSR and also includes student-athletes not receiving athletically related financial aid.
Among CWPA institutions, Salem International University (100) leads the way to rank as one of three institutions to record a perfect Academic Success Rate. Mercyhurst College (86) and Gannon University (80) round out the league's representatives among the 10 listed programs.
Division III student-athletes are not covered by the federal graduation rate methodology, because it only includes student-athletes who receive athletics financial aid. Therefore, the data for Division III are used to analyze success rates within the student bodies. In all, students who entered Division III institutions in the fall of 2004 showed a federal graduation rate of 65 percent, while the latest four-year average is 63 percent.
The Division III Presidents Council in 2009 approved exploring the possibility of calculating graduation rate and academic-success rates for Division III student-athletes. A pilot program using graduation-rate data collected from volunteering institutions began this past spring. Results are expected later this fall.
| Team | GSR | FSR |
| Brown University | 100 | |
| Bucknell University | 100 | 100 |
| CSU-Bakersfield | 100 | 50 |
| UC-Berkeley | 100 | 82 |
| UC-Davis | 100 | 83 |
| Colorado State University | 100 | 100 |
| George Washington University | 100 | 70 |
| Hartwick College | 100 | 44 |
| Harvard University | 100 | |
| Iona College | 100 | 33 |
| Marist College | 100 | 100 |
| University of the Pacific | 100 | 42 |
| Princeton University | 100 | |
| St. Francis College | 100 | 100 |
| Santa Clara University | 100 | 100 |
| Siena College | 100 | 75 |
| Stanford University | 100 | 100 |
| University of Maryland | 100 | 67 |
| Villanova University | 100 | |
| University of Michigan | 95 | 84 |
| Wagner College | 94 | 82 |
| Loyola Marymount University | 93 | 75 |
| Long Beach State University | 92 | 83 |
| UCLA | 92 | 92 |
| Arizona State University | 89 | 81 |
| USC | 89 | 82 |
| UC-Santa Barbara | 88 | 82 |
| Indiana University | 88 | 79 |
| San Diego State University | 88 | 73 |
| UC-Irvine | 77 | 62 |
| San Jose State University | 73 | 69 |
| University of Hawaii | 70 | 31 |
| CSU-Northridge | 67 | 33 |
| Division II | ||
| Team | ASR | FGR |
| CSU-Bakersfield | 100 | 50 |
| UC-Davis | 100 | 83 |
| Salem International University | 100 | 67 |
| UC-San Diego | 97 | |
| Sonoma State University | 94 | 100 |
| California Baptist University | 90 | 100 |
| CSU-Monterey Bay | 89 | 100 |
| Mercyhurst College | 86 | 75 |
| Gannon University | 80 | 75 |
| CSU-San Bernardino | 71 | 67 |