2025 College Rankings

Florida State University is the oldest continuously operating institution of higher learning in the state and, for years, was bogged down by some of the worst trends in American education. Recently, it has gotten a breath of fresh air from the state government’s requirement that it dismantle its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy. In response, the administration cleared out its DEI department, scrubbed its website of language promoting DEI, and removed required DEI statements for all faculty job postings.

FSU’s administration, on the whole, protects free speech. The school has a “green” speech code rating from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and has adopted the Chicago Principles, which promote free inquiry on campus. Among the faculty, there is more ideological pluralism than at other schools, consonant with student perception of faculty bias. On average, students place faculty close to “moderate” on an ideological continuum, a FIRE survey found.

FSU’s curriculum is solid. The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gives the school a B in its annual What Will They Learn? ratings, which assign letter grades based on how many of seven core subjects are required in the core curriculum or general education program. FSU mandates that its students take courses in history or government to graduate—a salutary requirement offset by the fact that it also still requires DEI-focused courses for graduation. ACTA singles out one center at FSU as an area of academic excellence: the Gus A. Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free Enterprise and Economic Education. This center runs two projects: the Excellence in Economic Education program; and the Program for the Study of Free Enterprise and Political Economy. Both seek to further the understanding of the functions of a free society.

The school’s administration acted decisively during the student campus protests over Israel’s response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terrorist attack. When anti-Israel protesters interrupted a meeting of the university’s governing board with disruptive chants, the administration acted quickly and suspended the group. Not long afterward, while many other schools were disrupted by encampments that halted classes for days, FSU’s board of trustees approved new protest guidelines that prohibited tents, bullhorns, and other loud noises that could interfere with the school’s operation. The administration also released a statement rejecting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

FSU is a good investment for its students. Graduation and retention rates overperform what would be expected, based on SAT scores and Pell Grant recipients. It has a 94 percent retention rate and an 85 percent six-year graduation rate. When it comes to students’ paying back the cost of education, we place FSU in the top 25 percent. It takes graduates about 1.5 years to pay off the cost. It also receives high marks for sports, Greek life, and other extracurricular elements of college life—one reason, perhaps, that FSU’s postgraduate network is vast and powerful. The Princeton Review rates its alumni network among the top 20 for state schools.

Still, there is room for improvement. Though FSU has complied with state guidelines, some vestiges of the old regime remain. The school, for instance, still posts a land acknowledgment on its website—a sign that while activism is under fire at FSU, it is not defeated.