ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced on Wednesday that 781 students competing in intercollegiate athletics have earned the Big Ten Distinguished Scholar Award. The list includes students from every institution and 38 different sports who have recorded a minimum grade-point average (GPA) of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year.

The 2014-15 class of Distinguished Scholar Award recipients includes 119 students who maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA during the previous academic term. This group of honorees is pursuing diverse fields of study with a list of majors that include accountancy, biological sciences, biomedical engineering, business administration, electrical engineering, journalism, marketing, mathematics and many others.

A total of 34 IU student-athletes from 14 different sports were named to list prestigious list of honorees. Four Hoosiers achieved 4.0 GPAs for the previous academic year.

Purdue had 63 student-athletes earn the award, including nine that had a 4.0 – Jamie Bissett, Mary Gooding, Grace Hernandez, Anji Li, Sharise Lund, Lizzy Lyon, Laura Maibuecher, Carly Marshall and Rhiannon Sheets

Big Ten Faculty Representatives established the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2008 to supplement the Academic All-Big Ten program. Similar to the Academic All-Big Ten honor, Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must be letterwinners in at least their second academic year at their institution. However, the Distinguished Scholar Award encompasses only students with a minimum GPA of 3.7 or higher for the previous academic year, excluding summer school. The Academic All-Big Ten threshold is a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher for a student’s academic career.