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Garnet and gold balloons graced the courtyard at the state Capitol today to honor Florida State University. The marching ban played, cheerleaders cheered, and hot dogs and hamburgers were plentiful for the several hundred who came. President Richard McCullough told the crowd that more than seventy-three thousand students applied for just sixty-two hundred openings this school year, in part because of FSU’s dramatic rise in national rankings.

“There is no university that I can think of that has risen so fast in the rankings, from forty-three to nineteenth in just under six years” McCullough told the crowd. “And our student success is a driving force for what we do at Flordia State University.  Ninety-five percent of our students return after their freshman year, and seventy-four percent of them graduate in four years. That graduation rate is among the top in the country.”

The national champion FSU woman’s soccer team was also honored at the event. Coach Mark Krikorian noted the overall championship team GPA is 3.5.