U.S. News has named LaGrange College a top 10 school for the fifth consecutive year. Pictured studying on the College’s Residential Quad are, from left, Laura Veatch, Rachael Watson and Kathryn Garvin.

In its annual evaluation of American colleges and universities, U.S. News & World Report has included LaGrange College in a new listing of “up-and-coming schools.” The magazine describes the new grouping as “schools everyone should be watching.”

Also featured in the “Southern Baccalaureate Colleges” category, LaGrange ranked seventh overall and was singled out as one of 10 best values in the 95-school classification that stretches over 12 states. This is the fifth consecutive year LaGrange has cracked the U.S. News top 10 and the ninth straight year the College has been named a best value.

“It’s always a pleasure to learn that we are counted among the best schools in the U.S. News & World Report college guide,” LaGrange College President Stuart Gulley said. “We also were excited to hear that of the more than 1,400 schools evaluated, we were in a select group of 70 colleges and universities nationwide that were designated up-and-coming schools.”

Gulley added that given the state of the national economy, he was particularly pleased the magazine named LaGrange a best value for the ninth year in a row.

“In this time of economic uncertainty, I think it’s significant that once again we have been named a best value,” he said. “We work hard to make an education on the Hill as affordable as possible, and this designation lends support to our belief that we offer an outstanding education at a very competitive price.”

For its selection of top 10 schools, the magazine looked at a number of factors, including peer assessment, class size, SAT/ACT scores and graduation rates. In conferring the best value designation, the publication uses a formula that relates a school’s academic quality to its cost of attendance.

An examination of the numbers shows that LaGrange earned one of the 10 highest peer assessment scores in its category and was one of 10 schools offering the highest percentage of classes with 20 or fewer students.

“We’re proud of our intimate learning environment,” Gulley said, “and it’s always gratifying to hear that our peers have rated us as a leader in our category.

“Over the past decade, we’ve consistently been featured in U.S. News, both as a best value and as a top school. I think that’s a strong tribute to the efforts and quality of the faculty, staff and administrative team who choose to work here and to the students who choose to learn here.”