In 2000, FIU received the highest research university ranking conferred by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. That same year,
FIU was awarded Phi Beta Kappa chapter, the country's oldest and most
distinguished academic honor society. FIU is one of only 78 universities nationwide to hold both designations.FIU has been ranked among the top 100 public national universities in the
U.S. News & World Report annual guide to "America's Best Colleges." FIU was the
youngest institution in the group. The magazine has reported that FIU students are among the least indebted college students in
the nation and recognized the University as a "best buy" in higher education. In 1998,
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine ranked FIU as the country's 18th best value
in public higher education. FIU was named one of the top 10 public commuter colleges in the U.S. in the 1995 edition of Money
Guide, an annual report published by
Money magazine, and has been cited in several other of the country's leading college guides.The 1999 National CPA Examination Report noted that
Accounting graduates from FIU ranked first in the nation in passing the
CPA exam on the first try and are consistently (last 5 years) in the top 5 in their exam
scores. In January 2001, the Academy of Management Journal ranked FIU's
College of Business Administration (CBA) Management Information Systems (MIS) unit the
11th best in the U.S. The Creative Writing Program is ranked among
the top ten in the country by "Who Runs American Literature?" in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. The School of Hospitality Management
is recognized by industry leaders as one of the nation's top five hospitality management programs.