FSU ranks 23rd in the 2024-2025 U.S. News & World Report rankings

Florida State University remained unchanged from last year in U.S. News & World Report’s latest “2024-2025 Best Colleges” rankings.

While FSU remains ranked 23rd in the annual national report, it is tied with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and the College of William & Mary. This creates a sense of déjà vu, as all three universities had the same ranking in the top 25 last year.

“We have improved dramatically as a university, but the data used in some of these rankings lags behind what is actually going on at the university,” FSU President Richard McCullough said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat.

Last year, the university dropped four places from 19th place in 2022 to 23rd place – a drop that knocked it out of the top 20 while it was trying to become one of the top 15 public universities in the country.

The decline — although FSU improved in every category measured in the report — was the result of changes in the media company's methodology. A restructuring decision resulted in 22 metrics being changed to remove the factors of class size, alumni giving rates, percentage of faculty members with degrees and high school graduation of students, all components in which FSU previously performed well.