FIU receives highest-ever rating in annual university ranking report. Here's how the school jumped 8 spots

Florida International University is on a roll.

After years of continuous upward movement, FIU achieved its highest-ever rating in the U.S. News and World Report annual college rankings, coming in at number 64 on the public universities list, jumping eight spots from last year, and 124^th overall.

It is currently tied with the University of Central Florida.

“I’ll tell you, we are beyond excited,” said FIU’s president, Dr. Kenneth Jessel. “We have been working very hard over several years to really focus on student outcomes, student performance and it has truly paid off,  and this year going up eight points from number 72 to 64 is truly incredible, and the nice thing is that U.S. News is now placing greater emphasis on the things that we believe are important, and that is upward economic mobility, student performance, and student success over time once they hit the workforce.”

The news spread quickly among students, who realize that as the university’s reputation shines, their achievements and degrees are magnified.

“I already knew FIU is a good school but it’s ranked higher so it’s even better school than it was before?” said freshman Schnayda Jean. “But it feels good to go to a good school that has all these opportunities.”

“Makes me proud of my school, too, and you know it’s good, good for all the students that are attending and working hard and it will make them more proud to be Panthers,” said junior Sebastian Del Valle, who added that the value of his eventual degree is rising with FIU’s rankings. “Which is good for jobs, interviews, internships.”

FIU’s momentum is by design. Jessel says the school has concentrated on ratings factors, such as student outcomes after they graduate, and increasing the amount of research. FIU is now in the top 3% of universities in money spent on research.

“The Wall Street Journal came out last week, we were ranked the fourth highest public in the country, so in terms of publics, we had the University of Florida, New Jersey Institute of Technology, and then University of Michigan Ann Arbor and FIU, we are in very good company,” Jessel said.

Most of FIU’s graduates stay in South Florida, adding their talents to the local work force.

“Our thinking is, why would you want to go anywhere else? FIU is truly the place to be, Miami is the place to be,” Jessel said.

Speaking of Miami, the University of Miami stands at 67^th overall in the U.S. News rankings.

Meanwhile, the University of Florida, Florida State University and the University of South Florida dropped in the new rankings.

UF was No. 6 in this year’s public-university rankings, a drop from its No. 5 spot last year. It shared the No. 6 ranking with the University of California, Davis and the University of California, San Diego.

FSU fell from No. 19 to No. 23 this year and was tied with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and William & Mary University in Virginia.

The University of South Florida also slipped, clocking in at No. 45 on the list of public universities after being No. 42 last year.

Florida A&M University moved into the top 100 public schools, hitting No. 91 on the U.S. News and World Report list.

Despite some schools dropping in the rankings, the state university system’s Board of Governors touted having six schools in the top 100.