Florida State University has not budged from last year in the latest U.S. News & World Report’s “2024-2025 Best Colleges” rankings.
While FSU remains in its No. 23 spot in the annual nationwide report, it is tied with University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the College of William & Mary – creating a sense of déjà vu as all three universities shared the same placement last year in the Top 25.
“We have improved dramatically as a university, but the data used in some of these rankings lags what is actually going on at the university,” FSU President Richard McCullough said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat.
Last year, the university fell four spots from No. 19 in 2022 to No. 23 – a drop that kicked it out of the Top 20 during its strive to be one of the nation’s Top 15 public universities.
The slip – in spite of FSU improving in each of the report’s categories measured – came as a result of changes to the media company’s methodology . A retooling decision led to 22 metrics being changed to remove the factors of class size, alumni giving rates, the percentage of faculty with a terminal degree and students’ high school standing, which are all components FSU used to score well in.