Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern Student-Athletes Set High Marks in Classroom
1/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | General
Jan. 16, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern's student-athletes had a record-breaking 2008 fall quarter in the classroom, surpassing or matching several program academic achievements.
For the first quarter in school history, all 19 varsity programs attained team GPA's of 2.90 or higher during the fall quarter. Of those 19 teams, 16 earned GPA's of 3.00 or better, nearly matching the Northwestern record of 17 set in the spring of 2007.
The Wildcats tied their previous high with an overall individual average GPA of 3.14. In terms of cumulative GPA, NU also tied its previous best with 14 teams finishing the quarter with 3.00 and higher marks.
During the quarter, 293 out of 463 student-athletes (63 percent) achieved GPA's of 3.00 and higher. Inside that number, 134 earned 3.50 or better scores and 16 reached the perfect 4.00 pinnacle for the quarter.
"Once again, our student-athletes have shown an outstanding commitment to excellence in the classroom," Northwestern Athletic Director Jim Phillips said. "The number one goal for every one of our student-athletes is to earn a prestigious Northwestern degree, and we are exceptionally proud to remain a leader among our peers in graduating student-athletes. The commitment to the classroom by both our in-season and out-of-season teams is outstanding."
Northwestern's fall sports led the Conference with 75 Academic All-Big Ten honorees in six fall sports for a league-best average of 12.5 per team. This number broke the previous NU high of 68 in a single quarter, led by the football program's record-breaking 26 award winners. Three NU student-athletes – Phil Brunner (South Milwaukee, Wis./South Milwaukee) of football, Carl Pett (Northbrook, Ill./Glenbrook North) of men's soccer and Drew Ratner (Dallas, Texas/Episcopal) of men's soccer– were named ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Americans.
