University moves up to 15th in southern region ranking

Georgia College & State University has moved up from last year’s ranking of 18th to 15th this year in the U.S. News magazine’s nationally published rating scale.

The university is grouped in the southern region category along with other private and public schools. The category includes schools from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

“We went up a few points, and we are extremely proud about that, and that shows we are doing good things,” University Communications Director Mitch Clarke said. “Particularly the reputation score means a lot because that means other schools are hearing good things about what you’re doing, and that’s very important.”

According to a recent GC&SU press release, the university’s reputation rate is now 3.2 percent, which placed the university in the top third of all schools in the southern region category.

“Our reputation score has always been one of the highest in its category, and it was this year,” Clarke said. “We were in the top third of all schools in the category.”

President Dr. Dorothy Leland said the reputation score is determined by asking various alumni, presidents, admissions officers, vice presidents, faculty and students to give their comments about GC&SU.

“I think a number of the factors that they look at are important for gauging your success for the kind of institution we are,” Leland said. “We do want to be academically competitive. We do want to have a large number of small classes. We do want to have good retention and graduation rates. We do want our alumni giving.”

Freshman Jon Russell said he tells his friends and family about how the small class sizes make him feel closer to the professors.

“I like the small classroom sizes because you feel you know the teachers,” Russell said.

Leland said that although GC&SU ranked high in reputation, other areas of scoring were not as superior. She is working to track the progress of freshmen.

“I just signed a letter that will go out to students who’ve left and ask them to give us feedback so we can know why they left, if they left because they were dissatisfied with the institution, their advice about how we can improve, where they are now and why did they leave,” Leland said.

Clarke said the 76 percent retention rate is up from last year, and it is expected to continue to increase in years to come, as more students make GC&SU their first choice.

“This used to be a suitcase college, but now you see more and more students staying the weekend.” said Matt Taylor, fifth year senior. “I bet more students will stay at the college as its progress continues.”

Clarke said that the university can learn from the other schools in the southern region category and improve on the areas where the university fell behind. He additionally said the national attention attached to the high overall ranking is a push headed in the right direction.

“We’re not going to stop there,” Leland said. “I think that with the right kind of focus, within five years we’ll be in the top ten, and in the next five to eight years, we might get into the top five.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 9 2005. 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