Skip to Content
FIU No. 9 most Instagrammed university
Campus & Community

FIU No. 9 most Instagrammed university

By Cristina Rosell

January 14, 2026 at 2:55pm

There’s lots to share and post about on Instagram (IG). While FIU’s campus boasts palm trees and fountains, lakes and golden sunsets, Panthers find more than just scenic backdrops to highlight (although those are definitely popular).

In 2025, FIU featured on IG 1.3 million times, per a recent article. Drawn from a combination of posts from FIU’s official IG account and anyone using popular hashtags associated with the university, such as #fiu and #floridainternationaluniversity, FIU’s #9 ranking is an enviable achievement.

International business major Armaan Talreja is an FIU “creator,” a student ambassador who consciously promotes the university through social media. Talreja genuinely appreciates and celebrates the attractiveness of our campus. “Campus is beautiful…there are palm trees everywhere. Palm trees are so cool to me. And the weather is great.” After attending high school in New York, coming to Miami for college felt like a breath of fresh air. Recalling one of his favorite posts about FIU, Talreja stated, “‘School is a lot easier when your college is like a resort’.”

 

While posts like this certainly help to broadcast the splendor of campus and increase the number of FIU mentions on IG, they also help drive engagement among prospective students. Beaming with Panther pride, Talreja is both awed and humbled by his role in contributing to FIU’s growth. “I think the coolest thing for me is when people come up to me and say, ‘Hey, I love your videos. I came to FIU because of you.’

“I’m just a regular guy making videos online…and knowing that [I] influenced someone in choosing their four years of school…That’s awesome,” he says. “It’s the best thing because every single one of those people have also said [that] they’re having a great experience here, too.”

Like Talreja, Mariangel Flores, a public relations, advertising and applied communications major, feels delighted to know that her posts encourage both prospective students to enroll and current students to become more involved. Worried that she might miss out on the “college experience” as a student not living on campus, Flores was surprised by the number of activities taking place on campus that have connected her and others to each other and the university. One of her favorite posts documented “Uncaging,” an event that takes place during Homecoming Week aimed at unleashing Panthers’ collective school spirit.

 

Another post which she fondly remembers was an FIU IG takeover called Panther on the Prowl. Flores interviewed students who, like her, decided to join a Greek organization: “I realized how special Greek life is to me and how much it helped me make friends.”

 

Similar to joining a sorority, applying to the FIU creators program really helped Flores come out of her shell. Overcoming the fear of how she would be perceived by her peers enabled her personal growth by giving her exposure to all that FIU has to offer and granting her a platform from which to share those opportunities with her expanding community.

Hoping to advertise FIU’s robust events calendar, which aims to promote inclusiveness among its diverse student body, Flores maintains that “You get out of FIU what you put into it.”

Unquestionably, that has been the case for FIU alumna-turned-social-media-specialist Fabiana Rubio. The day before she started at FIU in 2021, Rubio ’25 created her inaugural post about FIU. With her new schedule in hand, she recorded herself visiting each building in which she would take classes the following day so as not to become lost. She was accompanied by her parents for moral support.

 

From that initial post, Rubio began documenting her daily life as an FIU student: going to class, attending events such as UPRoar and football games, and highlighting the many complimentary services offered at Student Health and Wellness, including free massages and aromatherapy. “FIU has so much to offer students,” she asserts. “I didn’t live here. I lived at home. But I [was] very, very involved: I would go to school, go to events, stick around and take pictures of the campus, [even] collaborate with other creators on posts.” Cultivating a sense of community on IG appealed to fellow Panthers.

 

As a marketing major with the goal of becoming a content creator, Rubio was quickly recruited to join FIU’s burgeoning creator program. Two of her favorite posts include an FIU IG takeover during which she documented a D.C. fly-in for students who were invited to speak at a conference about the Everglades and a post-Covid concert that proved to be extra raucous.

 

 

Upon graduation, Rubio was hired full-time by FIU’s social media team. Learning of FIU’s #9 ranking, she gushed with pride. “It’s very exciting to [know] that our work is being seen and we’re getting recognized for that.”

Ultimately, what makes FIU so Instagrammable?

Our cultural landscape is undeniably a contributing factor. Recently, Talreja completed an Honors College course called “Miami in Miami.” Every other week, students attended field trips and explored the Magic City’s sights and communities, including a hike through the Everglades. Reflecting upon FIU and IG, Talreja concluded, “FIU is not only a college. It’s also this whole city, this whole experience.”

 

As FIU grows in numbers of alumni and reputation, in IG posts and social media followers, it also fosters an immeasurable love and pride among its Panther community. Perhaps this is what makes FIU so special, so Instagrammable.