<p>Interesting!</p>
<p>A few comments: it was my understanding that at the elite schools listed here, there is less of a differential between the academic qualifications of athletes and other students. Prowess at a sport may help one's app, but the standard for academic achievement is still pretty rigorous. All this to caution people from drawing the misleading conclusion that ivy-league calibre schools do a "better job" educating and graduating this problem group of special students. They're working with a different type of athlete, on average, than the Division I schools who make exceptions for scholarship-worthy athletes.</p>
<p>As for the minority piece, one cannot argue with such high graduation rates. They speak for themselves. </p>
<p>However, when one looks at other colleges, it's important to remember that graduation rates are not the inverse of the dropout rate. Too often people think that those who didn't graduate 'couldn't hack it.' However, not all students leave in academic difficulty. Nor should we assume that they never got a degree. Some students successfully transfer (for a variety of reasons), and those students do not show up in institutional-level retention or graduation rates.</p>