Hi sunday'ers,

I thought you all might appreciate this. I've heard similar things anecdotally for a while now - it's nice to see something formal.

J.R.

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From: Colleen Shane <cps1230@...>
Reply-To: Colleen Shane <cps1230@...>
To: emoryfrisbee@...
Subject: [emoryfrisbee] Fw: Ultimate academics
Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:08:38 -0700 (PDT)

For all you smarty-pants. And i mean all of you! Read on...
 

Hope all is well in Atlanta!

 

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Claudia Rizzo <crizzo@...>
To: DCPickup@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 2:50:25 PM
Subject: [DC Pickup] Ultimate academics

I thought folks might find this article interesting. ..

http://www.prweb. com/releases/ ultimate/ ranking/prweb431 459.htm

The Ultimate Mystery: Popular Sport Beats SATs at Ranking Universities
Academically
<http://www.prweb. com/releases/ ultimate/ ranking/prweb431 459.htm>

A study being released September 1 of all private national universities
shows that their ranking in Ultimate Frisbee edges out both SATs and
grades as a predictor of academic performance! Those ranked in the top
half for Ultimate have a graduation rate of over 85%, while those in the
bottom half just 60%. The top seven have nearly as many Rhodes scholars
and Marshall scholars as all others combined.

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) August 31, 2006 -- Move over SATs. Incredibly, for
the high-powered and high-priced private national universities, the best
predictor of academic excellence is rank in a popular sport.

Whether measured by graduation rate or prestigious scholarships - the
result is the same. What is this sport that mysteriously divines a
university's stature so precisely? It's called Ultimate Frisbee, or more
commonly just Ultimate. It is the fastest growing college sport and is
already played interscholastically at over 500 colleges and
universities. While wildly popular on campuses, relatively few in the
wider world have even heard of it.

A study (slated for release September 1) by Dr. Michael Norden of the
University of Washington shows that among all 86 private national
universities, those ranking in the top half for Ultimate have a
graduation rate of over 85%, while those in the bottom half graduate
just 60%. The difference in the totals of Rhodes scholars and Marshall
scholars among their graduates during this decade is even more dramatic
- 208 versus 15. (The odds of this happening by chance are truly
infinitesimal) . Moreover, the top ten schools based on Ultimate ranking
have a slightly higher mean graduation rate and more winners of top
scholarships than schools chosen by - not only SATs, but any standard
metric including: grades, faculty resources, and financial resources.

This correlation between Ultimate and academics has previously been
obscured by the fact that there are no separate divisions in Ultimate,
so that smaller private universities are historically ranked together
with public institutions up to an order of magnitude larger. The pattern
emerges clearly when comparing, over an adequate time frame,
institutions of similar size and demographics (i.e. private national
universities) . Study ranking is based simply on the total of Power
Rating points over the past ten years (assigned by the Ultimate Players
Association) for all of a school's open-division club teams.

Ultimate is a largely student-run club sport with minimal institutional
support. Why a game, requiring such all-around athleticism should so
consistently be dominated by universities (and presumably students) with
off-the-chart academic credentials, is truly a mystery. The top seven
schools for ultimate have a mean graduation rate of 95% and nearly as
many total Rhodes and Marshal scholars as all of the rest combined. The
names speak for themselves: Stanford, Brown, Harvard, Tufts, Dartmouth,
Yale, and Princeton.

Dr. Norden is an associate professor in the department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences of the University of Washington and author of the
book Beyond Prozac (Harper Collin/1995) . Jeremy Norden collaborated in
the study - he is a member of the world champion US National Juniors
Ultimate team.

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