LaGrange College ranked among top Southern liberal arts schools by U.S. News & World Report

Rankings released this morning by U.S. News & World Report place LaGrange College among the top liberal arts colleges in the South.

The college is ranked number 29 in the category by the magazine, which annually publishes a special issue rating colleges and universities across the country.

This is the first year that LaGrange College has moved into the top tier in the Southern liberal arts colleges category. Last year, the school was categorized as a "tier two" school in the four-tier ranking system.

"We are very pleased to move into the top level of U.S. News & World Report's ratings," said LaGrange College President Stuart Gulley. "The change reflects progress toward our goal of being the premier liberal arts college in Georgia, and it reinforces our conviction that the path we are on is the right one."

To compile the rankings, the magazine gathers data from and about each school in 16 areas related to academic excellence. Indicators used to measure academic quality fall into seven broad areas: academic reputation; retention and graduation of students; faculty resources; student selectivity; financial resources; alumni giving and graduation rate performance.

Each indicator is assigned a weight (expressed as a percentage) based on editors' judgments about which measures of quality matter most. Then, the colleges are ranked based on their composite weighted score.

The magazine publishes the numeric rank of roughly the top 25 percent of schools in each of the 10 categories; the remainder are placed in tiers based on their overall score in their category.

Though happy with LaGrange College's move into the top 25 percent, Dr. Gulley makes it clear that he intends for the progress to continue. "Over the last two days, our faculty and staff have been reviewing the college's strategic and master plans. We're laying the groundwork now that we hope will continue to move us ahead - and upward in the rankings - in the years to come."

A four-year liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church, LaGrange College offers 25 baccalaureate degrees and master's programs in business administration and education. It is the oldest independent institution of higher learning in Georgia and has an enrollment of about 1,000 students.

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CONTACT:   Dean Hartman
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