UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State student-athletes earned a record-tying 93% NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and 13 programs earned perfect 100% ratings. This is the ninth consecutive year the Nittany Lions have posted a record or record-tying performance in the classroom. Penn State is one of only eight schools that have won at least 10 NCAA Championships since the 2015-16 academic year and earned at least a 90 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR) in the 2025 NCAA report (Florida, North Carolina, Stanford, Texas, UCLA, USC, Virginia).
Both the Graduation Success Rate and Federal Graduation Rates are based upon student-athlete cohorts from 2015-18 and reflect the percentage of student-athletes earning a degree within six years. The NCAA developed the Graduation Success Rate to account for transfer student-athletes, mid-year enrollees and others not tracked by the Federal Graduation Rates.
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 93% to equal the school’s all-time record of 93%, which was set in the 2023 and 2024 NCAA reports. Nittany Lion students posted a 93% graduation rate compared to the 90% average for all Division I institutions for student-athletes entering from 2015-16 academic year through the 2018-19 academic year.
Penn State student-athletes have logged a Graduation Success Rate in the 88-93% range during each of the past 19 NCAA reports, improving from 88% in the 2015 report to a record-tying 93% report in the 2025 report.
“We are incredibly proud of our student-athletes for continuing to set the standard in the classroom and in competition,” said Penn State Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Pat Kraft. “Achieving a record-tying 93% Graduation Success Rate and having 13 programs earn perfect scores is a testament to the dedication of our student-athletes and the outstanding support from the Morgan Academic Center staff. This achievement reflects the culture of excellence that defines Penn State Athletics.”
Twenty-one of the Nittany Lions’ 27 teams (the NCAA combines track and field/cross country teams into one team per gender for this reporting metric) earned a Graduation Success Rate at or above the Division I national GSR average of 90%.
The 13 Nittany Lion squads posting 100% Graduation Success Rate scores were: women’s basketball, women’s cross country/track & field, men’s fencing, women’s fencing, field hockey, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s gymnastics, women’s hockey, women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, men’s tennis and men’s volleyball.
The football program posted an 85% Graduation Success Rate. This is also the 16th consecutive year the football team has surpassed the national average GSR for football.
The field hockey team earned a 100% GSR for the 21st consecutive year - every year since the NCAA implemented the release of Graduation Success Rate data in 2005. The women’s golf squad posted a 100% GSR for the 10th-straight year and the women’s hockey team had a perfect GSR score for the ninth consecutive year in which they’ve been eligible.
This is the 34th annual release of institutional graduation rates since national "right-to-know" legislation was passed in 1990. In 2005, the NCAA Division I Committee on Academic Performance implemented the initial release of the team GSR data.
The GSR is the NCAA's more inclusive calculation of academic success among scholarship student-athletes. The NCAA rate is more accurate than the federally mandated methodology because it includes incoming transfers and students enrolling in the spring semester who receive athletic aid and graduate, and removes from the calculation student-athletes who leave an institution and were academically eligible to compete. The federal rate does neither.