UNC Sees Improvement in Graduation Rates

Basketball team improves by 18 percentage points, six spots in ACC

Statistics for the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) released Tuesday by the NCAA indicated that 88 percent of freshmen student-athletes receiving scholarship aid, or recruited individuals participating in programs that do not offer athletic aid, graduated from UNC 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 UNC in good academic standing.

Nationally, UNC was tied for 184th overall and 45th among Power 5 institutions with a 88 percent GSR. That was up two percentage points from last year’s rate.

A total of 10 UNC teams achieved a 100 percent GSR for the 2010-13 period: men's golf, women's golf, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, women’s basketball, women’s fencing, gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, women’s swimming and diving and volleyball.

Eight other programs – men’s swimming and diving, men’s lacrosse, women’s rowing, softball, field hockey, men’s basketball, men’s soccer and women’s cross-country and track, had GSR of 90 percent or better.

In the ACC, UNC finished 14th overall. Duke and Notre Dame were tied for the lead at 98, 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).

Carolina’s football program was tied for 187th nationally, 54th among Power 5 teams and 13th in the ACC at 72 percent, up two percentage points from last year. 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, North Carolina was 124th nationally, 28th among power conferences (Power 5, AAC and Big East) and sixth in the ACC at 91 percent. That was an 18 percentage point jump and a move up six spots in the conference rankings.

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).