Duke Leads Power Five Schools in Graduation Rate

Blue Devils had 98 percent overall rate, 97 in football, 100 in basketball

Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Tuesday by the NCAA indicated that 98 percent of freshmen student-athletes receiving scholarship aid, or recruited individuals participating in programs that do not offer athletic aid, graduated from Duke within six years.

The GSR is based on student-athletes who entered college as freshmen in 2010-13 and allows for the removal of those individuals from the cohort who left Duke in good academic standing.

Nationally, Duke, Notre Dame and Northwestern tied for the lead among Power 5 institutions with their 98 percent GSR. Vanderbilt followed at 97 percent, with Stanford and Wake Forest at 96 percent. Boston College, South Carolina and Virginia were each tied at 95 percent.

A total of 17 Duke teams achieved a 100 percent GSR for the 2010-13 period: baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, men's cross country/track & field, women's cross country/track & field, men's fencing, women's fencing, field hockey, men's golf, women's golf, women's lacrosse, rowing, men's soccer, women's soccer, men's tennis, women's tennis and volleyball.

Duke's remaining programs – football (97), men's lacrosse (95), women's swimming & diving (90), wrestling (90) – all achieved a GSR of 90 percent of better.

In the ACC, Duke's overall mark also tied Notre Dame for the lead. Duke and Notre Dame were followed by Wake Forest (96), Boston College (95), Virginia (95), Syracuse (94), Clemson (93), Louisville (91), Miami (91), Virginia Tech (91), Georgia Tech (89), Pittsburgh (89), NC State (89), North Carolina (88) and Florida State (81).

Duke's football program was tied with Northwestern for the national lead at 97 percent, followed by Vanderbilt (95). Within the ACC, Duke's 97 percent rate was tops followed by Louisville (94), Boston College (90), Virginia (90), Georgia Tech (88), Syracuse (88), Wake Forest (88), Virginia Tech (87), Pittsburgh (86), Clemson (83), Miami (76), NC State (76), North Carolina (72) and Florida State (51).

In men's basketball, Duke tied for the national lead with its 100 percent rate. Clemson, Duke, Miami, Virginia and Wake Forest all registered perfect scores to lead the ACC followed by North Carolina (91), Boston College (89), Florida State (88), Notre Dame (82), Pittsburgh (82), Syracuse (82), Louisville (80), Virginia Tech (75), Georgia Tech (67) and NC State (50).