In the category of "Top Public Universities" for Master's degrees in the South, Georgia College ranked 11th in this year’s report. And, in the overall rankings, Georgia College ranked 31st among both public and private Master's universities in the South.

Georgia College was also tied at No. 6 with Kentucky’s Bellarmine University on the top up-and-coming Master’s universities in the South. As part of the regular U.S. News peer assessment survey, top university officials were asked to name the schools that they think are "Up-and-Coming Institutions” and are “making improvements in academics, faculty, students, campus life, diversity, and facilities.” These schools are worth watching because they are making promising and innovative changes.

“This wonderful news comes at an important time as we work through our challenging budget climate,” said GCSU President Dorothy Leland. “This is one of the many indicators that reaffirms the importance of our mission and the success we’re having as Georgia’s public liberal arts university. Our entire university community and, of course, our outstanding students deserve the credit for this honor.”

This is the second national honor Georgia College has received during the past year. GCSU also was recently named “A Best in the Southeast” college by The Princeton Review in its 2010 survey of colleges and universities in the region.

According to the University System of Georgia, rankings such as those provided by U.S. News & World Report are best utilized as a measure of accountability, and can be viewed as a means to compare and test the quality of an institution, its programs, resources, costs and faculty. As such, they represent another important tool to address the challenge and opportunity to engage in continuous process improvement, helping institutions assess programs and put in place the appropriate changes that benefit students.