GC&SU maintains Tier II status

Georgia College & State University has been ranked in Tier II of Southern Universities for the third year in a row.

GC&SU received its ranking in the U.S. News and World Report’s American Best College. The university also received one of the highest ‘reputation’ scores in the category.

Max Allen, executive assistant to President DePaolo and director of University Relations, states that the university was ranked in Tier III before the university became a liberal arts institution.

“Four years ago, we were ranked in Tier III like many other public Georgia colleges,” Allen said. “Now, with the many changes that have occurred in the past few years, we are near the top in Tier II.”

GC&SU received a ranking of 3.1 out of a possible 5.0 in the category of
reputation, placing the university in the top 10 percent of all schools in all tiers.

The university’s class sizes were another factor that U.S. News used to rank the school. Due to the allocation of special-initiative funding from the Georgia Legislature, GC&SU recently hired 68 new faculty members, reducing the faculty to student ratio.

“Although the U.S. News and World Report calculates us at 15 students for every one faculty member,” Allen said, “our actual faculty to student ratio is 17-1. We do expect to continue to improve this ratio, as we expect to hire 80 additional full-time faculty members next year.”

Throughout the past year, GC&SU has made many accomplishments that have influenced the status of this university.

“I see many exciting accomplishments taking place at GC&SU. We made COPLAC this year; President DePaolo was listed as one of the 100 most influential leaders in Georgia; we have 100 more freshmen this year than last year and over $100 million dollars in construction projects; and the list goes on,” Allen said. “When you take a look at everything that has happened in the past few years, one can’t help but notice that Georgia College & State University is headed in the right direction.”

According to U.S. News, its ranking formula gives the greatest weight to reputation, because a degree from a distinguished college “clearly helps graduates in getting good jobs or admission to top graduate programs.”

“President DePaolo is very pleased that we have received the Tier II ranking for the third year in a row. The best news about the ranking was the strong reputation score that GC&SU received,” Allen said. “This data from U.S. News clearly shows that others view this university as an excellent place to receive a quality education.”

Although GC&SU has received its Tier II status for three years, the university is still optimistic about ranking in Tier I.

“Tier I is clearly the goal. We will continue to work on improving in a number of areas like graduation rates, retention rates, faculty/student ratios, and increase in admission standards,” Allen said.

“As we continue our momentum by recruiting some of the best, brightest high school students in Georgia and beyond, I’m convinced that Tier 1 status will be reached soon and that we will be recognized as one of the best public liberal arts colleges in the country.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 14 2001. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry