<p>No, I am using the statistics that show UF’s racial diversity most accurately compared to the general population that its students are drawn from – the FL population, not the general US population. If that makes UF more or less diverse, I cannot control that. </p>
<p>Yes, I never said UF was not racially diverse. It has moderate racial diversity, IMO. For a state-flagship, it is pretty diverse and that is probably due to their Holistic Admission versus just using a GPA/Test Score chart that a lot of large public unis use. Their approach for admissions is similar to Berkeley, which also has pretty good racial diversity for a public flagship state uni. </p>
<p>It just is not in the Top-25 out of ALL universities in this country.</p>
<p>You know what: I think California, Florida, and Texas need to start thinking about their surroundings in a different way. Because the states are so big, have such large populations, and are isolated geographically - it makes them think they are not effected by what occurs in the other states. This is a public policy problem in my opinion that has been perpetuating for some time.</p>
<p>Look at the US Economy right now - All states are effected. Time for the people from these states to come out of their bubble.</p>
<p>Compared to Florida universities like FIU, UF’s makeup is hardly diverse. The following is from the FIU.edu site:</p>
<p>FIUs dynamic student body reflects the vibrant diversity of South Florida:</p>
<p>59% Hispanic
17% White Non-Hispanic
13% Black
4% Asian or Pacific Islander
7% other minority groups<br>
56% female
In addition to its diverse ethnic groups, the University serves a large percentage of economically disadvantaged students. Nearly 50% of all undergraduate students at FIU receive financial aid, and nearly 60% of those financial aid recipients come from families with annual household incomes under $30,000.</p>
<p>I find it hard to call any university diverse if one population makes up over 50% of the student body. </p>
<p>
…and 60-70% Caucasian at UF. This also applies to the HBCU’s and high Asian pop in the cal schools. What schools does princeton ranking put in the top 10?</p>
<p>Rocker, you’re right about the racial diversity. Too, the term “Hispanic” is very broad and subject to interpretation and can cloud things up in distinguishing ethnicity from race.</p>
<p>So is White. Do you know that Arab, Iranians, French, English, Slavic, Afghans, and North Africans are all considered White as well? Many racial categories represent a broad spectrum of ethnicity and cultures.</p>
<p>I’ll buy that. Of course things like gender, religion, language, sexual orientation, student and faculty interests, etc. all contribute to the diversity of a college too, in addition to race. Take all this stuff, “shake it like a polaroid picture” and you’ve got diversity.</p>
<p>Do they have an extremely high amount of gift aid vs self-help? No. The self-help component is much larger than other highly selective private and public unis (like UNC-CH, UVA, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Vanderbilt, etc)</p>
<p>Their aid is not the best but not the worst.</p>
<p>Yes, but what % is 100%? Also, with differential tuition, even 100% will not cover all the expenses. </p>
<p>I believe that 90% of the students getting BF is talking about the enrolled freshmen class. Some of the students will lose their BF by the time they graduate. Also, 100% BF would only cover about 25% of the COA for UF. So, I do not think the fact that UF has a lot BF students should merit it being top for “Students Happy with Financial Aid”. Their need-based aid is not off the charts. It has 75/25 combination for Gift/Self-help which is great for a public uni, and they meet about 86% of need. Again, it’s pretty solid, but not one of the best in the country.</p>
<p>Wow - the state of Florida gives you all the best state scholarship in the country and it is still not enough. Just so you all know the program cost the state coffers $436 million last year alone. When this program was started in 1997 in only cost $70 million for that year.</p>
<p>Not to mention UF has dirt cheap tuition rates for in-state students.</p>
<p>Thank you SSobick, I understand how much BF cost…and although I got a 100%, I am enrolling at a OOS school, so the program isn’t paying for any of my expenses.</p>
<p>The question isn’t if UF has good financial aid or not. The question is if it is one of the best in the country, and it is not. UF has good financial aid in general, and an outstanding financial aid if you just consider public universities. At the same time, UF financial aid is not in the same league as say…Harvard, Princeton, Amherst – all elite private universities, or other top public universities like UVA which meets 100% of need for both INSTATE and OOS students. </p>
<p>For UF to be top of the country, it should meet 100% of need and have a no-loan/minimum loan component. Personally, I feel that financial aid should be least of their concerns at the moment. UF needs a way to get in more money, not give it out.</p>
<p>Exactly. There are other schools that cost so much and will thus hand out enormous amounts of aid. Since Florida is already very affordable, it doesn’t hand out as much financial aid, so it isn’t going to be ranked as highly as other schools.</p>
<p>So you are saying we should jack up our prices so that we can in turn use more of that money for merit aid?</p>
<p>Fact: an overwhelming majority of UF students do not go into debt to attend, and they actually end up making money when it is all said and done. This sounds like the best deal in all of Higher Education if you ask me.</p>
<p>“So you are saying we should jack up our prices so that we can in turn use more of that money for merit aid?”</p>
<p>… When did I allude to that? I’m saying that the reason we’re not ranked is because our school is already affordable. I like it being affordable and the financial aid isn’t as important to me because it’s affordable.</p>
<p>Well I think the price of in-state tuition is far too cheap. I am very happy that the expanded tuition differential was passed and was signed by the Governor last week.</p>