DEKALB, Ill. – Six Northern Illinois University athletic programs, gymnastics, men's golf, men's tennis, volleyball, women's golf and women's soccer have recorded 100 percent graduate success rates (GSR) according to the latest report released on Wednesday (Nov. 19) by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). GSR is the academic assessment tool used by the NCAA to measure a school's ability to graduate student-athletes.

The latest data reflects graduation rates of student-athletes who entered school as freshmen in 2018-19. NIU Athletics posted an overall GSR of 87 percent, marking the sixth time in the last seven years that NIU has posted a mark of 87 percent or better.

"Graduating student-athletes is the most important metric of academic success that we have and remains at the core of what we do," said NIU Vice President/Director of Athletics and Recreation Sean T. Frazier. "These numbers show that NIU remains committed to academic excellence and we are very proud of our student-athletes, supported by our student-athlete academic support staff and coaches, who have earned their degrees." 

This year's data set marks the 18th consecutive year in which the NIU gymnastics program has posted a 100 percent mark. The Huskie women's soccer and volleyball teams have each produced 100 percent scores for 12 consecutive years while NIU men's golf and men's tennis have both posted 100 percent rates for seven-straight years. 

In addition to those perfect marks, the Huskie women's basketball program (92 percent) and softball program (91 percent) both had success rates higher than 90 percent. 

The 2025 Graduation Rates Report gives graduation information about the most recent six year graduating class of students and student-athletes who entered as freshmen in 2018-19. The graduation rate (percent) is based on a comparison of the number of students who entered a college or university and the number of those who graduated within six years.  The NCAA has compiled and released the Graduation Success Rate for the past 21 years. A complete searchable database of Graduation Success Rate (GSR) and Federal Graduation Rates (FGR) is available online at NCAA.org.