Florida State University

The Florida State University  is an American public space-grant and sea-grant research university. Its primary campus is located on a 1,391.54  acre campus in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the state of Florida.

The University is classified as a Research University with Very High Research by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The university comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities, labs and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, including professional school programs.

  The university has an annual budget of over $1.7 billion.  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 Taxon. Florida State University also operates The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the State Art Museum of Florida and one of the largest museum-university complexes in the nation

  In 1819 the Florida Territory was ceded to the United States by Spain as an element of the Adams-Ones Treaty. The Territory was conventionally split by the Apalachicola or later the Suwanee rivers into East and West areas. Florida State University is traceable to a plan set by the 1823 U.S. Congress to create a system of higher education.

  The 1838 Florida Constitution codified the basic system by providing for land allocated for the schools. In 1845 Florida became the 27th State of the United States, which permitted the resources and intent of the 1823 Congress regarding education in Florida to be implemented. In 1851 the Florida Legislature voted to establish two seminaries of higher education on opposite sides of the Suwanee River. Francis W. Epees and other city leaders established an all-male academy called the Florida Institute in Tallahassee as a legislative inducement to locate the West Florida Seminary in Tallahassee.

  The East Florida Seminary opened in Ocala in 1853, closed in 1861, and reopened in Gainesville in 1866. The East Florida Seminary is the institution to which the modern University of Florida traces its foundation.
William Den ham, West Florida Seminary cadet during the Civil War

In 1856, the land and buildings in an area formerly known as Gallows Hill, site of public executions in early Tallahassee,  where the Florida Institute was built, was accepted as the site of the state seminary for male students. Two years later the institution absorbed the Tallahassee Female Academy founded in 1843 as the Misses Bates School and became coeducational.  The West Florida Seminary stood near the front of the Wettest Building on the existing FLU campus, making this site the oldest continually used location of higher learning in Florida

  Florida State University has a nationally recognized honors program.The University Honors Office supports the University's long tradition of academic excellence by offering two programs, the University Honors Program and the Honors in the Major Program, which highlight the institution's strengths in teaching, research, and community service.The Honors Program also offers special scholarships, internships, research, and study abroad opportunities.

Admission into the University Honors Program is by invitation only. The average academic profile of students that were offered honors invitations in 2014 was as follows: 4.4 weighted GPA; 31 ACT composite; 2070 SAT total. For the Honors in the Major Program students, the University Honors Office requires that prospective students have at least sixty semester hours and at least a 3.2 cumulative FLU GPA. 


The FLU campus is served by eight bus routes of the Seminole Express Bus Service. The Seminole Express Bus Service provides transportation to, around, and from campus to the surrounding Tallahassee areas for Faculty, Staff, Students and Visitors. All students, faculty and staff can also ride any Star Metro bus throughout the City of Tallahassee for free by swiping a valid Capsular. FLU also provides other campus services, including Spirit Shuttle   Noel Cab, S.A.F.E. Connection, and Night Noel nighttime service

The Honors program offers students housing in Candis Hall and Gilchrist Hall. Candis Hall is the traditional home of Honors students since 1955, which is situated on Candis Green at the heart of Flu's main campus. Gilchrist Hall also houses Honors students and is conveniently located adjacent to Candis Hall. The two halls enjoy a shared study which allows Honors students living in either residence hall to easily gather with classmates and friends.