@NuScholar I get that the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is less than it could be if it were called simply the FSU College of Engineering and were fully brought into the FSU fold. 85% of its students are enrolled at FSU. Consider this: UF engineering has 10,000 students. UCF engineering has 9,400 students. USF engineering has 6200 students. And the latest data that I could find for FAMU-FSU engineering was 2,600, with 330 of them from FAMU. I am confident that an FSU College of Engineering could easily attract enough top students to triple in size given the overall reputation of FSU standing alone. However, because FAMU won’t let go over the matter of 330 students, the college is stuck at a location 4 miles from FSU’s main campus and is held back by being associated with FAMU, a college with a reputation that lags well behind FSU.
So, going back to the OP, who asked generally what the differences were between UF and FSU now that her first child was bringing college decisions to the forefront, UF has more departments that are more highly rated than does FSU, which is why it is a more highly rated college overall. But they cost virtually the same amount. My oldest son went to FSU because he didn’t get into UF, and he picked FSU because it is better than USF and UCF. However, my second son will be starting at UF this next year. At my sons’ high school, the decision for most students of which of the two colleges to attend is usually up to the admissions committee of UF, if you get what I mean. But FSU is still a great school.