[NU Sports] Minny's graduation rate compared with Northwestern

[Jonathan Hodges]

The NCAA graduation rates are reported as the number of students who
graduate within 6 years of entering the institution.  Due to this 6
year time span, the most recent statistics are from the period ending
in 1999 (since all current athletes still have their own 6 year window
to graduate).  All transfers out of the institution (i.e. NU
basketball in the late 90's) count against the institution - hence why
the NU graduation rate for Men's BB is so low.  The current slew of
players are on pace to graduate, so that number should improve as
years pass on.

Some reform of the way these numbers are calculated should be made,
since transfers out of your institution should not count against your
institution.

Jonathan


On Tue, 14 Dec 2004 12:38:16 -0500, Jeff Beamsley <jeffb at hilgraeve.com> wrote:
> Don't know how the NCAA comes up with it's institutional numbers and
> that's always the challenge in any statistical analysis.
> 
> BUT
> 
> The issue is just as much a question of why is NU's graduation rate is
> LOWER than the overall institutional rate as it is why Minny's athletic
> graduation rate is higher.
> 
> This is an NU list after all. <g>
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
> Louie Vaccher wrote:
> 
> >You bring up a good point but I think those numbers may be a little
> >misleading.
> >
> >If I'm not mistaken, Minnesota is a large, public school with a lot of
> >commuting and part-time students, and students that spend a short time there
> >and then move on. So, I'm guessing that their student body graduation rate
> >is falsely low, and it would be much higher for students that stay four or
> >five years.
> >
> >A better comparison would be to measure the graduation rate of all students
> >who stay at Minny for four or five years against the student-athletes that
> >stay four or five years. I'll bet that the graduation rate for athletes
> >(which would probably be pretty close to that 58% number) would be lower
> >than the student body's as a whole in that case.
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Jeff Beamsley" <jeffb at hilgraeve.com>
> >To: "NU Sports list" <nwu-sports at romaine.tssi.com>
> >Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 10:53 AM
> >Subject: [NU Sports] Minny's graduation rate compared with Northwestern
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>There is a lot of press today saying how bad Minny's athletic situation
> >>is because they are last in the BT in athletic graduation rate (58%),
> >>but that is six points BETTER than the graduation rate for the whole
> >>institution (52%).  Now this isn't something to brag about, but in
> >>general the athletic department is doing a better job than the
> >>institution in graduating people.
> >>
> >>In comparison, Northwestern graduated 87% of it's athletes (on average),
> >>but the institution graduated 92%.  So the athletic department did five
> >>points WORSE than the whole institution.  When you dig into the numbers,
> >>it was the basketball team that appeared to have some problems (did our
> >>euro imports graduate?).
> >>
> >>Seems to me that you shouldn't hold an any athletic department to a
> >>higher standard than the whole institution and you should celebrate
> >>those athletic departments that do a better job than the institution
> >>itself.   Those athletic departments with positive numbers are
> >>demonstrating their commitment to education.
> >>
> >>If you reorg the list based on difference between the athletic
> >>department and the institutional graduation rates it looks a little
> >>different.
> >>
> >>Minny +6
> >>Purdue +6
> >>OSU +5
> >>Iowa +5
> >>PSU -1
> >>MSU -2
> >>NU - 5
> >>Indiana -5
> >>Wisky -5
> >>Illinois -9
> >>UoM -10
> >>
> >>Jeff
> >>
> >>_______________________________________________
> >>nwu-sports site list
> >>nwu-sports at tssi.com
> >>http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
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> 


-- 
Jonathan W. Hodges
President, Iota Chapter
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
Northwestern University
626 Emerson St. #34  Evanston, IL  60201-3810
(847) 736-2449
jonathanwhodges at gmail.com