@MizzouAthletics Ranks Among SEC's Best in Academic Progress Rates
4/20/2016 12:07:00 PM | General, MizzouMade
Four Mizzou programs (men’s golf, volleyball, women’s swimming & diving & tennis) earn perfect scores
COLUMBIA, Mo. - Mizzou Athletics has placed as much of an emphasis on success in the classroom as it has on striving for greatness in competition, and new academic progress rates released by the NCAA on Wednesday, April 20, affirmed that as fact.
The NCAA released the latest APR figures to its member schools, and the University of Missouri once again stood out as an example of academic excellence among its peers, especially within the Southeastern Conference.
Four Mizzou sport programs, men's golf, volleyball, women's swimming & diving and tennis, scored perfect 1000 multi-year rates, placing the Tigers as one of five schools in the SEC with at least four sports ranking as best in the conference.
Additionally, Mizzou's men's track & field (986), women's basketball (991) and women's track & field (995) all ranked within the Top 3 of their respective sports in the SEC.
Eleven of Mizzou's 17 SEC-sponsored sports rank in the top half of the league for the 2014-15 season's multi-year APR.
"We're certainly proud of our many Mizzou student-athletes and sport programs who continue to represent us so well in the classroom," Director of Athletics Mack Rhoades said. "Academic excellence has been a source of great pride for Mizzou Athletics for many years, and is a crucial component of our mission to Prepare Champions for Life."
The APR, developed by the NCAA in 2004, provides a real-time look at a team's academic success each semester by tracking the academic progress of each student-athlete on scholarship. The APR accounts for eligibility, retention and graduation and provides a measure of each team's academic performance.
Graduation has been a strong suit for Mizzou Athletics, with 97 percent of student-athletes who exhausted their five-year eligibility having earned degrees.
The Tigers' excellence in the classroom has been bolstered by the Total Person Program (TPP), which serves Mizzou's student-athletes' needs in the areas of academic support and personal development.
In total, 58 percent of Mizzou's student-athletes recorded grade point averages (GPA) of 3.0 or higher in the Fall 2015 semester, all while logging more than 4,500 hours of community service with more than 55 organizations in Columbia and its surrounding communities. In fact, Mizzou's student-athletes posted a 3.03 GPA in Fall 2015 for the Tigers' highest GPA ever.
TPP continually works with Mizzou student-athletes throughout the year in career development. More than 800 hours were spent aiding student-athletes in Mizzou's career center with assessments, resume building, mock interviews, personal branding and career coaching.
Complete information on the APR can be found on the NCAA's website, www.ncaa.org.
