The National Collegiate Athletic Association has recognized Dartmouth for ranking in the top 10 percent of Division I colleges for academic progress, as measured by the Academic Progress Rate. The APR is a recently installed measure that calculates the percentage of a school's athletes that graduate and remain academically eligible for varsity athletic competition.
To measure the APR, the NCAA assigns a rating between 1 and 1,000 to each school. A rating of 1,000 means that every team member for a given sport is academically eligible to participate and that every athlete either graduated or returned for another year. Schools must score above 925 to avoid scholarship penalties and other sanctions such as restrictions on postseason participation.
"The APR is used to normalize academic progress at more than 330 NCAA Division I institutions," Drew Galbraith, Dartmouth's associate director of athletics for compliance and administration said. "It is really a measure of two issues that Dartmouth teams do not struggle with. Retention and eligibility often are hot-button issues around the country, especially at the highest level of football and basketball competition."
The Big Green has remained near the top of the national rankings since the NCAA began keeping track of the APR in 2004.
The APR was a part of NCAA reforms designed to hold Division I schools accountable for the academic progress of student-athletes.
Dartmouth has yet to fall below No. 3 in the final rankings.
This year, 24 Big Green teams received public recognition, second only to Yale's 28. The four Dartmouth teams that were not recognized -- men's crew, men's and women's squash and co-ed sailing -- do not compete in NCAA championships and were not measured for the rating.
The average APR of all 28 of Dartmouth's teams was 995.8.
Several of Dartmouth's sports teams have had a perfect score of 1,000 for all four years. On the men's side, lacrosse, skiing and swimming hold that distinction. For the women, the basketball, cross country, crew, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, swimming and tennis teams share that honor.
"Every year, we submit the desired information to the NCAA and expect to come out looking very good," Galbraith said. "While the purpose of the program is to regulate schools and penalize those that fail to meet academic standards, there has been a recent movement to encourage incentives for good performance such as additional scholarships or grant money. For now, however, top teams are simply recognized via letters of commendation addressed to head coaches."
Ivy League institutions have led the way in making sure its student-athletes excel in the classroom.
This year, the six top-ranking teams -- Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Penn, Princeton, and Harvard -- are all members of the Ancient Eight conference.
Of the 712 Division I teams from 191 schools that received public commendation, 21 percent were from the Ivy League. The conference averaged 18.75 commended teams per school, more than two-thirds that of the next-highest conference. The Ivy League is the only conference to have each one of its football teams recognized.
"I simply could not be prouder of our students and coaches for this recognition and continued accomplishment," Dartmouth Athletic Director Josie Harper said.
