Tennessee Tech Student-Athletes Continue Outstanding Graduation Success Rate
Tennessee Tech Student-Athletes Continue Outstanding Graduation Success with a rate of 87%.
By Jeff Bowe, TTU Athletics Media Relations
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Tennessee Tech student-athletes continue to excel in the latest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Federal Graduation Rate (FGR) reports, as announced Wednesday by the NCAA.
Tech has not only maintained a high level of success in the school's overall graduation rates, but also the student-athlete graduation rates continue to rank higher than those for the general TTU student body. Additionally, Tech has the highest GSR among Tennessee schools in the Ohio Valley Conference (87%).
"Tech student-athletes compete in and out of the classroom!" Director of Athletics Casey Fox said. "I'm proud of our continued academic success, culminating in the ultimate goal of graduating with a transformational degree. Tennessee's Number 1 Public University continues to prepare our student-athletes for success after graduation."
The four-year figures released Wednesday reflect graduation numbers among student-athletes who entered college from 2015 to 2018. This is the most recent graduating class for which the required six years of information is available.
With an 87, Tech posted a GSR of 80 or higher for the 11th straight year and 12th time in the past 13 years. The 87 marked the third-highest GSR for Tennessee Tech since the NCAA began reporting the information, ranking just behind the scores of 88 from the last two years (2023 & 2024) and 2022's 89.
The numbers display how well Tech compares with other public institutions within the state, with schools in the Ohio Valley Conference, and nationally when compared with all Division I programs. The impressive GSR mark of 87 percent displays the continued and sustained growth by Golden Eagle student-athletes over the past several years.
The GSR and FGR numbers of Tech's student-athletes continue to shine when compared with the numbers for the general student body. Seven of Tech's 14 athletic programs (beach volleyball does not appear in the rankings yet due to just starting at Tech in 2022-23) earned a higher FGR than Tech's general student body graduation rate.
Tennessee Tech has a GSR of 87 for the six years following the 2018 cohort. The school's GSR was 79 in 2012, 80 in 2013, 79 in 2014, 81 in 2015, 83 in 2016, 85 in both 2017 and 2018, 87 in 2019, 84 in 2020, 85 in 2021, 89 in 2022, 88 in 2023, and 88 in 2024.
GSR was created in 2002 in response to Division I college and university presidents who wanted data that more accurately reflected the mobility of college students beyond what the federal graduation rate measures. The federal rate counts any student who leaves a school as an academic failure, even if the student enrolls at another school. Also, the federal rate does not recognize students who enter schools 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 provides a more accurate measurement of student-athlete success.
While student-athlete graduation success rates remain high, deeper analysis and data forecasting indicate that the additional flexibility in rules governing competition after transfer could impact graduation rates in the future.
Graduation Success Rate (GSR)
Graduation Success Rate (GSR) begins with the federal cohort and adds transfer students, mid-year enrollees, and non-scholarship students (in specified cases) to the sample. Student-athletes who leave an institution while in good academic standing before exhausting their athletics eligibility are removed from the cohort of their initial institution. This rate provides a more complete and accurate look at actual student-athlete success by taking into account the full variety of participants in Division I athletics and tracking their academic outcomes.
Federal Graduation Rate (FGR)The
Federal Graduation Rate assesses only first-time full-time freshmen in a given cohort and only counts them as academic successes if they graduate from their institution of initial enrollment within six years. It makes no accommodation for transfers into or out of an institution. The rate is very limited because it ignores the large number of transfer students in higher education, but it is still the only rate that allows a direct comparison between student-athletes and the general student body.
