it seems to me that the big public uni’s have tiers, based on reputation, networking, recruiting… with tier one being:
Berkeley
UCLA
Michigan
UVA
UNC
I can see why Florida might not yet be in that 1st tier, despite is equivalent selectivity and admitted student stats. But I see no reason why it shouldn’t be included in the 2nd tier, which to me seems to include:
U of Florida
Wisconsin
U of Texas
U of Washington (Seattle)
UC San Diego
and maybe Ohio State and Univ of Illinois along in tier 2?
And then tier 3 for me seems like:
Maryland
Indiana
Rutgers
Florida State
UC Santa Barbara
UC Davis
Anyway, this is of course not a complete list and I am leaving many schools out, but it does seem like the exclusion of some schools from discussions about top tiers is somewhat outdated and is not based on the quality of the students or the quality of the professors, which seem like important factors to me.