<p>Personally I thought “tiers” were assigned by the numbers…the first fifty highest-ranked schools in the first tier, the second fifty in the second tier, and so on. By that system FSU’s undergrad program, ranked #112 by USNews, would be third tier. Obviously the cutoff numbers for each tier are open to interpretation. (I got my numbers from the fact that in its guide to graduate programs, US News lists, for example, the top 100 Law Schools, and then goes on to list ~50 “third tier” law schools and finally ~50 “fourth tier” law schools.)</p>
<p>But more important is to recognize that USNews is not judging the quality of FSU’s law school, med school, film school, or graduate school when they rank FSU’s undergrad program #112. USNews ranks graduate programs by field and degree. For example, FSU’s law school is ranked #53 this year and its graduate chemistry dept. is ranked #48. So certain graduate programs at FSU are ~ in the top tier.</p>