<p>Harvard</a> Tops the Most Popular Colleges List - MSN Encarta</p>
<p>Yes, and here is the reason why, nothing else.</p>
<p>"Students tend to stay pretty close to home, and they're looking to better themselves financially," says David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling. The combination of affordable tuition and athletic success appears to be a powerful lure for college hopefuls"</p>
<p>UF- 63% yield.
FSU- 46% yield.
UM- 27% yield.</p>
<p>“The combination of affordable tuition and athletic success appears to be a powerful lure for college hopefuls” </p>
<p>It also helps that just about every meaningfull program offered at UF is ranked higher than all the Florida schools it is in competition with.</p>
<p>The above quote is obvioulsy NOT the only reason.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Some programs…not all. Certainly not stated like this.</p>
<p>In my opinion MyOpinion, that took the cake for your dumbest post (which is impressive). I was a fan of UM and lived 30 minutes away from it my entire life. However, I didn’t even bother applying because people within Miami and most of Florida already understand that Florida is in a different stratosphere in virtually every respect. It seems like the only reason UM maintains a semblance of good academic standing is because they either attract disillusioned out of staters or they throw $30,000 a year to beg students to attend. </p>
<p>All in all, if UM was less expensive than UF, I would still have chosen UF as would the vast majority of the state. This isn’t the 70’s anymore. UM has fallen off while UF has become a national power academically… and there’s no substantive argument that you can make to disprove that.</p>
<p>Haven’t both UM and UF grown a lot better since the 70s? Especially UM, not necessarily better than UF, but a lot better than it was in the 70s.</p>
<p>My point was that, in regards to one another, the tables have turned and the discrepancy is increasing on a yearly basis. Take the law schools of each for example.</p>
<p>Let me be clear - UF has some strengths with engineering and building sciences as two significant entries. A sweeping superiority over a school like Florida State? No. You’re buying sales hype and it just is not true.</p>
<p>I think it was UF President Lombardi who, quite aggressively, even created UF’s own *Center<a href=“now%20apparently%20at%20ASU:%20%5Burl=http://mup.asu.edu/staff.html]Staff%20-%20The%20Center%20for%20Measuring%20University%20Performance[/url]”>/I</a> for measuring university performance which quite naturally rated UF’s programs well. Those of us who are FSU grads used to laugh at this so-called ratings game, until it actually attracted students who did not know better. Quite an impressive display of perception becoming reality, much to our chagrin. Marketing campaigns work, apparently - especially in Florida, where the population is in the main not native, and knows little of history.</p>
<p>And this includes law school.</p>
<p>Glad to see the numbers/rankings supporting UF’s growing prestige and reputation.</p>
<p>Per this link for Graduate & UG programs:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.ir.ufl.edu/nat_rankings/us_news/summary.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ir.ufl.edu/nat_rankings/us_news/summary.pdf</a></p>
<p>There are a total of 78 ranked by USNWR.</p>
<p>Unfortunately this analysis excludes many stellar areas of both schools and is really just a quick comparison of low hanging fruit. Despite its limitations it does show its not a clean UF sweep by a long shot if at all.</p>
<p>It is important for viewing students to realize that UF and FSU are not clones of each other and each has areas of expertise. Sometimes that area is the same, such as physics or chemistry, some times not such as meteorology and building sciences. My point is that UF certainly has some fine areas, such as engineering, but so does FSU in its areas of focus. To assert one is uniformly better is simply incorrect; as each are quite nuanced universities. </p>
<p>Note that this is a mix of apples and oranges as some ratings are dated. I suppose we could consider this a “highest rated” list, which is probably pointless, but what the heck, this is an internet college bulletin board. I gathered my data from the FSU ratings list, which appears to be at least somewhat current: [FSU</a> Highlights](<a href=“http://fsu.edu/highlights/rankings.html]FSU”>Rankings | Florida State University)</p>
<p>I also included rankings from other lists as certainly they are as valid as USNWR which is significantly composed of opinion, and who is to say other opinion is less valid, especially when that area under rating is an area of special emphasis, as when The Atlantic magazine rates creative writing or the NRC rates meteorology for example.</p>
<p>Chemistry
General FSU 28; UF 36
Analytical FSU 13; UF 10</p>
<p>Clinical psychology FSU 32; UF 20</p>
<p>English - creative writing FSU (graduate)-Top 10, PhD-Top 5; UF (masters) 20</p>
<p>Physics
General FSU 26; UF 35</p>
<p>Business
Undergraduate FSU 29; UF 27
UG Accounting FSU 24; UF 15
Real estate FSU (grad)8; UF (ugrad)8 (not direct, but interesting)</p>
<p>Criminology FSU 11; UF 11</p>
<p>Engineering (mechanical) FSU Top 10%; UF 33</p>
<p>Law FSU 82%; UF 78% (another interesting stat, very real-world from: [2009</a> Raw Data Law School Rankings : Employed at Graduation (Descending)](<a href=“2020 Law School Rankings - Median LSAT Score (High to Low) (51-100)”>2020 Law School Rankings - Employed at Graduation (High to Low) (51-100)) )
Environmental FSU 10; UF 14 </p>
<p>Music (grad) FSU 5; UF 60</p>
<p>Political science FSU 9; UF 48</p>
<p>Fine arts FSU 28; UF 74</p>
<p>P2N, I think the ranking comparisons you have between UF and FSU are flawed. In the example for Physics, you have the following:</p>
<p>General FSU 26; UF 35.</p>
<p>The FSU website lists the ranking (#26) among PUBLICS. UF’s #35 is OVERALL.</p>
<p>Another example is:</p>
<p>Chemistry
General FSU 28; UF 36</p>
<p>FSU’s OVERALL ranking is like #48 when compared to UF’s #36 OVERALL ranking.</p>
<p>Please list FSU’s OVERALL rankings for side by side comparisons.</p>
<p>For year 2007:
Physics and chemistry FSU 48 UF 36 (overall).
Criminology FSU 11 UF 11 (overall).
Political science FSU 36 UF 48 (overall).
Creative writing - same (The Atlantic’s assessment is still better in my opinion. Who better to assess creative writing than creative writers?).
Accounting - same (who better to assess an accounting program than accountants?)</p>
<p>And so on…this does not change my assertion that UF still does not have a clean sweep
and that to include only USNWR and exclude other equal or better assessments of value is still in error.</p>
<p>Whoops - I have to correct myself. I found some historic program overall rankings that are probably appropriate since the UF list shows some equally dated numbers see: [Florida</a> State University State of the University Address 1998](<a href=“http://president.fsu.edu/98state/speech4.html]Florida”>http://president.fsu.edu/98state/speech4.html)</p>
<p>Physics FSU 23 UF 35
Psychology FSU 42 UF 66
Sociology FSU 29 UF 46
Biological sciences FSU 49 UF 48</p>
<p>As best as I can tell these are “overall” USNWR numbers. I think these programs are “meaningful”. Of course, this is all horribly superficial and likely a waste of time. We as alumni had to beg FSU to start listing rankings on the website as certainly a university has to market itself in a competitive environment.</p>
<p>Now, while the flagship Florida schools post such numbers, I do think it is significant to say they are head and shoulders above all other Florida schools (including UMiami) in accumulation of such ratings.</p>
<p>According to the latest US News Graduate School Rankings</p>
<p>Physics = FSU 45; UF 35
Psychology = FSU 99; UF 66
Sociology = FSU 42; UF 46
Biological Sciences = FSU 89; UF 48
Chemistry = FSU 45; UF 34</p>
<ul>
<li>I have the entire ranking if needed. But Parent is right, University of Miami performs terribly in the US News Graduate Rankings.</li>
</ul>
<p>Everyone knows that “University of <em>” is better than "</em> State University;</p>
<p>University of Pennslyvania / Penn State
University of Georgia / Georgia State
Uiversity of Michigan / Michigan State
University of Mississippi/ Mississippi State
Universiy of Colorado / Colorado State
University of Iowa / Iowa State</p>
<p>USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>I am lonely and would welcome even vituperation as a form of human interaction. LOL</p>
<p>Bigg, any nincompoop knows there is no vituperation on CC. ;)</p>
<p>Besides, everyone knows and experts agree that the directional schools are the future.</p>
<p>To wit:</p>
<p>Chicago
Miami
Southern California
UC @ Berkeley
UC @ LA
UC @ SB
UC @ SD
UC @ Irvine<br>
South Florida<br>
Southern Miss<br>
Northwestern<br>
East Carolina<br>
Central Florida<br>
Northern Iowa<br>
Central Michigan<br>
Southern Illinois<br>
Western Michigan<br>
Middle Tennessee<br>
Northern Illinois<br>
Eastern Washington
Georgia Southern<br>
Western Kentucky<br>
Southern Methodist<br>
Eastern Michigan<br>
Western Illinois<br>
Northeastern<br>
Northern Arizona<br>
North Texas<br>
Eastern Kentucky<br>
Central Arkansas<br>
Eastern Illinois<br>
Northwestern State
Coastal Carolina<br>
Western Carolina<br>
Southern University
Southern Utah<br>
Southeast Louisiana<br>
Northern Colorado<br>
Charleston Southern
Central Connecticut
Southeast Missouri State<br>
North Carolina Central<br>
Texas Southern</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>vincnity1
</p>
<p>No one really cares about your specific reasons. </p>
<p>Again,</p>
<p>“Students tend to ** stay pretty close to home,** and they’re looking to better themselves financially,” says David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling.** The combination of affordable tuition and athletic success appears to be a powerful lure for college hopefuls"**</p>
<p>Those parameters are of greater weight than ANY kind of academic ranking at the time of attracting students. When quality of education is fairly comparable, cheaper will always win. So, yes, that is the ONLY reason UF shows on that ranking as clearly stated by Mr Hawkins, whose credibility is greater than yours, xNYer.</p>
<p>I can hear the UF ■■■■■■ come…</p>
<p>but before that, one final note:</p>
<p>vincanity1
</p>
<p>Denial is not a river in Egypt. A 49 ranking for UF vs a 51 ranking for UM really illustrates the disparity and the great divide between the “national academic powerhouse” and the smaller private university.</p>
<p>Lol you’re right MyOpinion. No one cares about my specific reasons. The only opinions that matter are yours and those of the ignorant few that agree with you. </p>
<p>And one explanation for hearing the UF ■■■■■■ coming might be that YOU’RE IN THE UF FORUM YOU MORON. I tend to refrain from calling someone names but, well, it seems appropriate in this instance. </p>
<p>What do you guys say we all hop on the UM forum and criticize it whenever we get a chance. We can even throw out outlandish claims. Unfortunately we can’t lie about being a vastly superior university because it wouldn’t be a lie, but we can call them names or something. </p>
<p>You’re why people aren’t choosing UM</p>