(College Station, TX), E. Odell (Austin, TX), Th. Schlumprecht (College Station, TX) and A. Zsák (Leeds)Abstract. For every α < ω1 we establish the existence of a separable Banach space whose Szlenk index is ω αω+1 and which is universal for all separable Banach spaces whose Szlenk index does not exceed ω αω . In order to prove that result we provide an intrinsic characterization of which Banach spaces embed into a space admitting an FDD with Tsirelson type upper estimates.