UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – The Penn State athletic department records 109 student-athletes earning Academic All-Big Ten honors for the fall semester. Katherine Asman (women's soccer), Amanda Poorbaugh (women's soccer), Julia Raich (women's soccer) and Gery Schnarrs (field hockey) all finished with perfect, 4.0 GPAs.
Among those on the list of fall Academic All-Big Ten honorees is redshirt-senior Ally Schlegel from the women's soccer program. Schlegel earned first team All-North Region, first team All-America and was honored as an Academic All-American as selected by College Sports Communicators this season. The captain is also a semifinalist for the MAC Hermann Trophy.
The Nittany Lions' fall teams were led overall by football with 32 honorees. On the women's side, women's soccer had 23 honorees, a program record.
Team by Team Honorees
Men's Cross Country – 9
Women's Cross Country – 11
Field Hockey – 16
Football – 32
Men's Soccer – 12
Women's Soccer – 23
Women's Volleyball – 6
In 2021-22, the Penn State athletic department finished with 478 Academic All-Big Ten selections, including a record breaking 224 students in the spring of 2022. The latest 109 fall honorees bring Penn State's total academic honorees to 7,886 since 1991-92.
Also in 2021-22, Penn State had 157 student-athletes earn Big Ten Distinguished Scholar honors with 22 having unblemished GPAs.
Penn State Highest Fall Academic All-Big Ten Totals (3.0 GPA):
2021 – 131*
2017 – 117
2020 – 114
2022 –109
2012 – 100
2019 – 94
2018 – 94
* - School record
Graduation Success Rates
Penn State student-athletes continue to register record-breaking graduation rates and perform well above their peers nationwide. The Nittany Lions posted a record-tying 92% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 10 programs earned perfect 100% ratings. This is the sixth consecutive year the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-tying performance in the classroom, according to data reported by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).
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 92% to tie the school's all-time record of 92, which was previously set in the 2020 and 2021 NCAA report. Nittany Lion students posted a 92% graduation rate compared to the 89% average for all Division I institutions for students entering from 2012-13 through the 2015-16 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have logged a Graduation Success Rate in the 88-92% range during each of the past 16 NCAA reports, improving from 88% in the 2015 report to a record-breaking 92% report in the last three reports.
Twenty-one of the Nittany Lions' 27 teams (men's and women's track and field/cross country teams combined) earned a Graduation Success Rate at or above the Division I national GSR average of 89%.
The 10 Nittany Lion squads posting 100% Graduation Success Rate scores were: women's fencing, field hockey, men's golf, women's golf, women's hockey, women's swimming & diving, men's tennis, women's tennis, men's volleyball and wrestling.
Penn State Among the Nation's Most Comprehensive and Successful Athletic Programs
Under the leadership of Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft Penn State has one of the nation's most comprehensive and successful athletic programs, featuring 800 student-athletes across 31 varsity programs (16 men's, 15 women's). The Nittany Lions' 31 programs are tied for the fourth-highest number of sports sponsored by a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) institution.
Fall 2022 Academic All-Big Ten List (PDF)
