UF Number 26 Overall
UF number 4 Public Universities
UF is a great school, but I’m not trusting a source that names BYU as the 36th best college in America.
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Forbes describes its methodology at How We Rank America’s Best Colleges
- Alumni Salary (20%)
- Debt (15%)
- Graduation Rate (15%)
- Forbes American Leaders List (15%)
- Return on Investment (15%)
- Retention Rate (10%)
- Academic Success (10%)
They always have the same overrated pet schools on the top of the list every year.
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These mish mash lists are not helpful. Can anyone list the top 50 LAC’s ?
Every school listed was evaluated using the same criteria as ucbalumnus posted
Wall Street Journal uses different methodology and UF was ranked the number 1 Public University
US News uses different methodology and UF was ranked number 6 Public University
What you can take from all of this is UF is one of the top Public Universities in the country and one of the best Values in Higher Education with Tuition at about $7,000 per Year and with Florida’s Bright Futures program many if not most students are attending tuition free
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So in the last few years UF has become how dare they compare themselves to top Publics to part of the same overrated pet school group of top publics
Ranking lists like this are always controversial and people end up challenging the specific rankings of certain schools.
But when I look at the top 20 private and top 20 public schools on this list, I’m not really seeing anything too surprising.
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What I can take from this is that I don’t see value in any rankings.
I think emotional well-being is the most important part of college, but I guess Forbes disagrees.
Notice how none of the criteria are academics-related (faculty strength, academic reputation, class sizes, faculty publishing and awards, etc.).
How can a ranking of colleges be taken seriously if it overlooks entirely the most important aspect of a college: the quality of education?
In terms of academic rep, the top public schools are Cal-Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, UNC, UCLA, Wisconsin, Washington, Illinois, Texas, UCSD, W&M, Georgia Tech…
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I think you missed “IMO” 
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I’m going off the old USNews Academic Rep ranking – if anyone knows about relative academic strength, it’s the deans’ secretaries. 
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Not sure what the WSJ and Forbes were thinking wasting their time coming up with college rankings when they could have just asked prezbucky on the CC forum
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I do too, since they didn’t include academic rep/quality in their formulas.
Those two rankings seem heavily focused on ROI – which is problematic for a number of reasons. (self-selection by major/job type, differences in COL among different locales, etc.). It is also, of course, a function of cost.
One thing that moves the needle of a school’s academic reputation is the number of top awards, like the Nobel prize, that their alumni or faculty have earned. It is a school’s way of literally moving the world forward by making breakthrough discoveries.
This is a list of the top 50 Nobel-winning American schools. Florida has four.
ETA: I give LACs a pass on this, since their focus is primarily on undergrad education, and their research budgets pale in comparison to those at top universities.
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Florida has done a great job of investing in higher education. Facilities lag a bit and more courses are online but the accessibility, grad rates and outcomes are strong.
Florida has risen the ranks because of the increased emphasis placed on cost of attendance which in turn skews ROI as well. This has leveled the playing field especially with Michigan, UVA and W&M. If you look at academic outcomes and salary UF lags their “peers”
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And it won’t be long before the impact of eliminating tenure drags it down further in these areas.
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Waiting patiently here for the imminent decline of the flagship universities of the state with highest net in-migration in the last 3 years, LOL. Yeah, clearly great applicants are staying away from the Florida schools.
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Commendable research which, unfortunately, doesn’t take into account the simple variable of where actual students are interested in going. Maybe Forbes was on to something there. Look into the percent increase in applications to Florida and other Southern state schools in the last three years.
It doesn’t matter what criteria a ranking system uses or how many rank UF a top school unfortunately there is a segment here that will look at the ranking and find an area that isn’t considered and uses it as a gotcha.
I don’t know why there is an anti Florida Schools Bias but I have seen it since I have been on here.
UF is the Flagship University of the 3rd most populated State with the 4th Largest Economy
UF has a Law, Medical, Dental, Pharmacy and Veterinary College
UF does over a Billion dollars a year in funded research
Florida has the cheapest tuition for instate students in the country
Florida Bright Future Scholarships provide 100% or 75% Tuition and Fees to students depending on GPA, Test Scores and Service Hours.
Based on UF admission stats the majority of instate students should be receiving Bright Future scholarships
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