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BLACKSBURG – Seven Virginia Tech varsity sports had 100 percent Graduation Success Rates (GSR), according to an NCAA report released Thursday afternoon.

The Graduation Success Rate was developed by the NCAA as part of its academic reform initiative as a better measure of student-athlete academic success. The GSR allows student-athletes six years to earn their degree. This year’s rate is based on student-athletes who entered college in the fall of 2006, the most recent data available. The rate shows the percentage of those student-athletes who earned a degree by the spring of 2012. The four-year cohort of student-athletes who began college in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 is also included.

Virginia Tech’s GSR combined for all sports was 90, and that number ranked sixth among ACC schools behind Notre Dame (99), Duke (98), BC (96), Wake (94) and Miami (92).

At Virginia Tech, women’s basketball, men’s golf, lacrosse, softball, women’s soccer, women’s swimming and diving, and women’s tennis all recorded GSR’s of 100.

In football, the Hokies had a GSR of 78, which ranked fifth among ACC schools and eight percentage points above the national average of 70. Only BC (94), Duke (92), Miami (86) and Wake Forest (86) ranked higher than the Hokies among ACC schools.

In men’s basketball, Virginia Tech had a GSR of 90, 20 percentage points above the Division I average. The Hokies’ GSR was tied for second among ACC schools with North Carolina and behind only Duke and Notre Dame, both of whom had 100.

Four other sports at Virginia Tech finished with a GSR of 90 or higher – men’s swimming and diving (95), men’s track and field and cross country (93), baseball (93) and volleyball (92).

The men’s track and field and cross country programs were tied for fifth among ACC schools, while the men’s swimming and diving program was tied for sixth. The baseball program was seventh among ACC schools, while the volleyball program was 12^th (11 volleyball programs in the ACC had GSRs of 100).

The GSR holds institutions accountable for transfer students, unlike the federal graduation rate, and the GSR also accounts for midyear enrollees and is calculated for every sport. Under the calculation, institutions are not penalized for outgoing transfer students who leave in good academic standing. The outgoing transfers are included in the receiving institution’s GSR cohort.

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