Florida State University
600 W. College Avenue, Tallahassee, FL 32306
www.fsu.edu

Florida State University (commonly referred to as Florida State or FSU) is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation. The university comprises 15 separate colleges and 39 centers, facilities, labs and institutes that offer more than 300 programs of study, including professional programs.

Florida State is a flagship university in the State University System of Florida. As one of Florida's primary graduate research universities, Florida State University awards over 2,000 graduate and professional degrees each year. In 2007, Florida State was placed in the first tier of research universities by the Florida Legislature, a distinction allowing FSU, along with one other university, to charge 40% higher tuition than other institutions in the State University System of Florida. While FSU was officially established in 1851 and is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida, at least one predecessor institution may be traced back to 1843, two years before Florida was admitted as a state in the United States.

Florida State University is also home to nationally ranked programs in many academic areas, including the sciences, social policy, film, engineering, the Arts, business, political science, social work, medicine, and law. Florida State is home to Florida's only National Laboratory - the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and is the birthplace of the commercially-viable anti-cancer drug Taxol. The Florida State University athletics programs are favorites of passionate students, fans and alumni across the United States, especially when led by the Marching Chiefs of the FSU College of Music. Florida State is a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference and has won twelve national athletic championships as well as multiple individual competitor NCAA championship awards.

Academics

Florida State University aspires to become a top twenty public research university with at least one-third of its PhD programs ranked in the Top-15 nationally. Florida State University owns more than 1,530 acres (6.2 km²) and is the home of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory among other advanced research facilities. The university continues to develop in its capacity as a leader in Florida graduate research. Other milestones at the university include the first ETA10-G/8 supercomputer, capable of 10.8 GFLOPS in 1989, remarkable for the time in that it exceeded the existing speed record of the Cray-2/8, located at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by a substantial leap and the development of the anti-cancer drug Taxol.

Undergraduate Honors Program

The FSU Honors Program is a specially designed program for the most accomplished incoming undergraduates. Undergraduates in Honors participate in smaller classes with faculty, including individual research programs or assigned research in the area of the sponsoring faculty member. Admission to Honors is competitive. The FSU Honors Medical and Law early-admission, professional-track programs are designed to facilitate faster access to professional programs for the limited number of students who meet required standards. Honors students are eligible for the Honors residence hall and associated administrative benefits.

Limited Access Programs

A number of undergraduate academic programs at Florida State University are termed "Limited Access Programs". Limited Access Programs are programs where student demand exceeds available resources thus making admission to such programs sometimes extremely competitive. Examples of limited access programs include The Florida State University Film School, the College of Communication, several majors in the College of Visual Arts, Music, Theatre and Dance and all majors in the College of Business.

Young Scholars Program

The FSU Young Scholars Program is a competitive residential science and mathematics program for 40 Florida high-school students with potential for careers in the sciences, engineering, and health professions. Admission to the FSU YSP generally requires completing the eleventh grade and scoring at least 90% on a national standardized examination such as the SAT or PSAT. The PSAT Math average is approximately 96% and the PSAT verbal average is approximately 94%. Many students are first in their class at their home schools with 79% being in the top ten of their class.

Tuition

Fall 2009 undergraduate tuition costs are $150.87 dollars per credit hour for in-state tuition while out-of-state tuition is $632.35 dollars per credit hour. Fall 2009 graduate tuition costs are $322.71 dollars per credit hour for in-state tuition, and out-of-state tuition is $954.11 dollars per credit hour. Fall 2009 law school tuition costs are $473.32 dollars per credit hour for in-state tuition, and out-of-state tuition is $1,040.35 dollars per credit hour. Medical School tuition costs are billed per annum. For 2009 FSU College of Medicine costs $18,230.36 dollars a year for in-state tuition, while out-of-state tuition is $52,781.65 dollars.

Rankings
 
U.S. university rankings

• ARWU World Top-200
• ARWU National Top-100
• ARWU Natural Science & Math Top-100
• ARWU Social Sciences Top-100
• USNWR National University 102nd-overall (Tier 1)
• USNWR Law 52nd
• USNWR Medical (primary care) 56th
• USNWR Education 41st

Dodd Hall

The D'Alemberte Rotunda, part of the College of Law, is used to host special events and in the past has been used by the Florida Supreme Court to convene special sessions

College of Medicine

College of EngineeringIn 2009 Florida State University was rated the fifth Best Value College of public universities in the United States by USA Today and The Princeton Review. Florida State University is currently ranked 48th among public universities and 102nd overall in Tier 1 for National Universities by U.S. News and World Report. In addition U.S. News in 2009 ranked FSU as 32nd overall amongst the most popular colleges in the United States, this ranking is determined by institutions with the highest yield rates.

This institution ranks in the top 200 among world universities, among the top 100 American universities, and in the top 90 among universities in the United States by The Academic Ranking of World Universities, 30th among U.S. public universities and 76th among all U.S. universities by Forbes magazine, Florida State University was ranked 15th nationally in the February 2008 edition of Kiplinger's Best Values in Public Colleges. FSU is the second-least-expensive flagship university in the United States, according to USA Today. Florida State ranks as the 155th university worldwide and the 79th in the United States in the Academic Ranking of World Universities. According to the Webometrics Ranking of World Universities in 2009, Florida State University ranks 43rd university in the United States and Canada and 53rd in the world.

Many of FSU's academic programs rank among the nation's top twenty-five public universities, including programs in Business (Accounting, Real Estate, Management Information Systems, Risk Management/Insurance, Entrepreneurial Studies), Chemistry, Creative Writing, Criminology, Dance, Education, Film, Human Sciences, Hospitality, Information Technology, Law, Meteorology, Music, Oceanography, Physics, Political Science, Public Administration and Policy, Social Work, Spanish, Theatre, Urban Planning, and Visual Art.

Colleges of Florida State University
College Year founded
College of Arts & Sciences 1901
College of Human Sciences 1901
College of Education 1901
College of Music 1901
College of Social Work 1928
College of Visual Arts, Theatre & Dance 1943
Florida State University College of Communication and Information 1947
College of Business 1950
College of Nursing 1950
College of Law 1966
Florida State University College of Social Sciences and Public Policy 1973
College of Criminology and Criminal Justice 1974
College of Engineering 1983
College of Motion Picture, Television and Recording Arts 1989
College of Medicine 2000

Faculty

Florida State University employs 2,291 faculty members and 5,942 staff. The faculty of Florida State University include recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim Fellowships, Academy Awards, and other accolades. Florida State is represented by faculty serving in a number of renowned Academies, Associations and Societies. Florida State was home to the first ETA10-G/8 supercomputer. Professor E. Imre Friedmann and researcher Dr. Roseli Friedmann demonstrated primitive life could survive in rocks, establishing the potential for life on other planets.

Florida State University researchers developed the anti-cancer drug Taxol. A number of groups based in the United States, including one led by Robert A. Holton, attempted a total synthesis of the molecule, starting from petrochemical-derived starting materials. By late 1989, Holton's group had developed a semisynthetic route to paclitaxel with twice the yield of the Potier process. Florida State University, where Holton worked, signed a deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb to license this and future patents. In 1992, Holton patented an improved process with an 80% yield. Taxol remains the best-selling anti-cancer drug ever manufactured, and the most commercially viable product ever created by a Florida University

Libraries
 
Strozier Library

FSU's Ringling Museum of Art the state art museumFlorida State University libraries comprise one of the largest collections in the state of Florida. In total, Florida State has ten libraries and millions of books and journals to chose from. The Collection covers virtually all disciplines and includes a wide array of formats – from books and journals to manuscripts, maps, and recorded music. Increasingly collections are digital and are accessible on the Internet via the library web page or the library catalog. The current dean of the Library System is Julia Zimmerman, and she oversees a staff of 129 and a $15 million annual budget.

Collections

Florida State University maintains and operates The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art located in Sarasota, FL, which is recognized as the official State Art Museum of Florida. The institution offers twenty-one galleries of European paintings as well as Cypriot antiquities and Asian, American, and contemporary art. The museum's art collection currently consists of more than 10,000 objects that include a wide variety of paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photographs, and decorative arts from ancient through contemporary periods and from around the world. The most celebrated items in the museum are 16th, 17th, and 18th century European paintings, including a world-renowned collection of Peter Paul Rubens paintings. The Ringling Museum collections constitute the largest university museum complex in the United States.

Florida State University also maintains the FSU Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) in Tallahassee. The MoFA permanent collection consists of over 4000 items in 18 sub-collections ranging from pre-Columbian pottery to contemporary art.

Research

As one of the two primary research universities in Florida, Florida State University has long been associated with basic and advanced scientific research. Today the university engages in many areas of academic inquiry at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels.

Housing

Florida State University is a traditional residential university wherein most students live on campus in university residence halls or nearby in privately-owned residence halls, apartments and residences. Florida State currently has 17 residence halls on campus, housing undergraduate, graduate and international students. Residence halls offer suite style, apartment style, and corridor style accommodations. On-campus housing is generally preferred by many students as automobile parking on or near campus can become a competitive effort. There are many off-campus housing options throughout Tallahassee for students to choose from. All on-campus housing at Florida State University has high-speed Internet access included in the rent.

Major List

Masters Degree Programs

Accounting
Aging Studies
American Dance Studies
American Law for Foreign Lawyers
Aquatic Environmental Science
Art Education
Art Therapy
Arts Administration (Art Education)
Arts Administration (Music)
Asian Studies
Biological Sciences
Biomedical Engineering
Biostatistics
Business Administration
Chemical Engineering
Chemical Physics
Chemistry & Biochemistry
Civil Engineering
Classics
Communication
Communication Science and Disorders
Computational Science
Computer Science
Counseling & Human Systems
Creative Writing
Criminology
Dance
Demography
Early Childhood Education
Economics
Educational Leadership & Policy
Educational Psychology
Electrical Engineering
Elementary Education
English
English Education
Epidemiology
Exercise Science
Family & Child Sciences
Finance
Food & Nutrition
Foundations of Education
French
Geographic Information Science
Geography
Geology
German
Graphic Design
Greek
Health Policy Research
Health Education
Higher Education
History
History & Criticism of Art
History & Philosophy of Science
Humanities
Industrial Engineering
Instructional Systems
Interior Design
International Affairs
Italian Studies
Latin
Library & Information Studies
Management
Management Information Systems
Materials Science
Mathematics
Measurement & Statistics
Mechanical Engineering
Mental Disabilities
Meteorology
Motion Picture, Television & Recording Arts
Multilingual/Multicultural Education
Music Education
Music Performance
Music Theory and Composition
Music Therapy
Musicology
Nursing
Oceanography
Opera Production
Philosophy
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Public Administration
Public Health
Reading Education
Rehabilitation Counseling
Religion
Research & Evaluation Methods
Russian & East European Studies
Science Teaching
Screen and Play Writing
Slavic
Social Science
Social Science Education
Social Work
Sociology
Spanish
Special Education
Statistics
Studio Art
Theatre
Urban and Regional Planning
Visual Disabilities

Estimated Costs