LaGRANGE, Ga. (WRBL) – LaGrange College officially has one more major accomplishment to celebrate. The local college has ranked in the top 10 for best Regional Colleges in the South by U.S. News and World Report for a second consecutive year.

Dr. Susanna Baxter, the President of LaGrange College, credits the achievement to several “high impact practices” including the focus on undergraduate research and opportunities students have to study abroad.

“We have a lot of high impact practices- those are practices that research indicates lead to success, to graduation and into jobs or graduate school,” said Dr. Baxter.

LaGrange College ranked higher than several other regional colleges in the area like Toccoa Falls College.

Dr. Baxter said the college focuses mainly on undergraduate studies and she is honored to be recognized externally by many peers.

She bases on the success the college has had on the high impact practices. They are now planning strategic methods being placed to ensure students can participate in more of them. The practices include service-learning, learning community, research with faculty, internship, study abroad and culminating senior experience.

“The high impact practices and those types of conversations that we’ve had like improving our rate, all of that is not about this ultimate score. It’s a byproduct of all of our hard work but not the goal of our hard work,” said Dr. Baxter.

LaGrange College is also celebrating a higher enrollment rate this year. According to Dr. Baxter, the school is up 75% for freshmen enrollment for a total of 678 students this year as opposed to 583 last year. She credits the higher enrollment rates to improved recruiting methods and the use of digital marketing.