This book arrived on my doorstep a few days ago. Unfortunately, it
doesn't include ice hockey individually, but does include ice hockey in
the "other" category. Sports shown individually are Men's Football,
Baseball, Basketball and CC/Track, and Women's Basketball and CC/Track.
There are also summaries by Div I-A, -AA, and -AAA, and by Public (large
and small) and Private (large and small).
Graduation rates are for 1983-84 through 1986-87 entrants and various
enrollment data are given for 1990-91 through 1992-93 or 1992-93
admissions.
This report is limited in that it reports results only for athletes
receiving "athletic aid", often in comparison with institution-wide
averages.
I don't know what valid observations one might make on this data,
because for every average or for each distinction I've tried to make,
it's been relatively easy to point out an exception!
For example, you'd think the 43% graduation rate of UNLV basketball
players is pretty bad, but the UNLV average for student athletes is
only 35%. That looks bad, but the graduation rate for all students
is only 27%! But then UNLV appears to be in a class by themselves.
:-( Then there are schools like Dartmouth that don't graduate any
student athletes (there is no athletic aid). The all-student
graduation rate at Dartmouth is an astounding 95%!
I'll make a few observations anyway ... :-)
(1) Graduation rates of these student athletes generally met or exceeded
the averages for an institution.
In summary, for the 298 Division I schools, the report shows
FRESHMAN-COHORT GRADUATION RATE All Students Student-Athletes
1986-87 Graduation Rate 55% 57%
Four-Year Average 54% 53%
(2) An athlete that exhausts eligibility has a much higher graduation
rate (no surprise).
Though 53% of student-athletes were found to graduate within 6
years, 76% of those that exhausting eligibility graduated. (58% of
the athletes exhausted their eligibility. Thus only 21% of athletes
not-exhausting-eligibility graduated).
(3) Students and athletes at private institutions have a *much* higher
chance of graduating than at a public institution. Students at
large institutions are more likely to graduate than at like
(public/private) smaller institutions.
Public Institutions
FRESHMAN-COHORT GRADUATION RATE All Students Student-Athletes
1986-87 Graduation Rate 52% 53%
Four-Year Average 50% 48%
Private Institutions
FRESHMAN-COHORT GRADUATION RATE All Students Student-Athletes
1986-87 Graduation Rate 70% 70%
Four-Year Average 68% 67%
On average, however, the SAT/ACT scores were higher for the private
institution than public institution student athletes.
(4) Generally rates and scores were lower for basketball and football
athletes, than for those of other sports.
(5) There seems to be substantial variation between sports at many
institutions. I list this last because it may not be valid due to
relatively small numbers of student athletes involved.
For example, at Maine, the "very successful" Baseball team only
graduated 25% (1986-87 entrants) to 36% (four year average) whereas
all other sports substantially exceeded the institution averages.
Again with Maine, blacks on the football team graduated at only a
33% rate (whites were 59% and 49%) whereas blacks on the basketball
team graduated at a rate far exceeding whites.
I suspect these variations are substantially due to coaching and
support staff, but probably other things contribute in each case.
Given a stamped, self-addressed envelope, I'd be happy to send a
photo-copy of your school's (2 page) data.
Send to:
Wayne Smith
5752 Computing Center - CAPS
University of Maine System
Orono, ME 04469-5752
cheers,
Wayne (it's still off-season) Smith
The College Hockey Discussion List administrator
Systems Group - CAPS BITNET/CREN: wts@maine
University of Maine System internet: [log in to unmask]
|
