@ClarinetDad16 I’m not a fan of niche rankings except when it comes to party school ranks. I think mostly despite a lot of issues people consider us news the more reflective of a university prestige.
The value rankings change drastically if you have a scholarship or not and certainly most of these schools are not best value OOS.
When it comes to ranking I like the Fiske guide which I feel gives you a good feel for different areas.
@Gator88NE I’m pretty sure merit aid at UF just like all other schools is regardless of family income and based only on stats. @FINKELLY don’t get your hopes up for any merit unless your kid is the valedictorian (in which case why go to UF ) and financial aid for someone from New York is unlikely.
I strongly favor the niche methodology:
https://colleges.niche.com/rankings/top-public-universities/methodology/
Us news:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings
@Zinhead thank you for your insight.
@ClarinetDad16 niche relies too much on student surveys and that can produce strange results. When I looked at niche rankings of high schools in my area I can see that this sometimes produces a high rank for a really bad school and a low rank for a great school. I’ll take niche ratings of food and other things into consideration but I’m not relying on their overal ranking at all.
This discussion is about the value of an education at UF for an OOS on a full tuition vs. other options.
UF is FULL of valedictorians.
OOS merit aid is based on …merit. Hopefully, many of you or DS/DD will be offered one of the scholarships. 
Didn’t UF lose a chunk of their valedictorian pipeline when they stopped buying NMF winners
Valedictorian does not always equate to NMF winners. Especially with all of the IB and AICE programs (and AP classes) in Florida. Two years ago the Val in my DD’s class choose UF over Vanderbilt, based on cost. Vanderbilt offers a great aid package (met 100% need with no loans), but UF is that affordable for in-state students.
A lot of in-state demand for UF, which is why the current’s President’s preference to increase the % of OOS students could run into some resistance.
@Gator88NE I was referring primarily to OOS merit awards for myself (not a valedictorian) and @FINKELLY also stated OOS. I also didn’t mean specifically valedictorian but valedictorian strong like candidate. Typically a candidate like that in NY can get a very good private school tuition merit aid and will be unlikely to attend an OOS state school even as strong as UF.
I’m curious as to your assertion that the president is trying to increase OOS students. How is that being done ? Hopefully it means a little pocket money for us OOS.
@NewYorker404 I was replying to @ClarinetDad16 's question about NMF and Vals…however…
To your question about the President. Several times he’s stated in presentations around the state, that he would like to increase UF’s geographical diversity. The Fall 2014 class was 8% OOS (an another 4% international). He’s been very careful to state it in terms of diversity and not in terms of revenue (by increasing OOS tuition). I get the sense he’s laying out the ground work for the initiative, before he starts. He hasn’t set a target (and I think he wants to avoid targets).
They have started by hiring additional regional recruiters, mostly in the Midwest. Nothing about increasing scholarships yet, has been publicly discussed.
The admissions point to take from all of this, is that UF want’s to increase it’s current % of OOS students, and is likely to treat OOS students equally with in-state students for admissions. Unlike schools like UVa and Michigan, you don’t need significantly higher stats than in-state students to be accepted.
Back to UF and Vals (in-state)…
The State of Florida has close to 1,000 high schools. Below is a list of Florida NMF by school district and high school.
http://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/35/urlt/NatlMeritProgram.pdf
You’ll notice that only a few hundred schools generated a NMF, and many of these schools generated 10, 20 or more (many only generated 1). For example, Duval County has 19 high schools, but only 7 generated NMF’s. This leads me to believe that many of the in-state Vals are not NMF. I would think UF gets a few hundred in-state Vals a year (out of 6,500 freshman they enroll). What UF really pulls in is the top 10% (72% of the class).
Final note, with the new in-state FIS scholarship (COA scholarship for NMF), UF is likely back to pulling in a large number of in-state NMFs.
We are located in a competitive high income school district in the suburbs of Chicago that regularly ships a significant quantity of students outside the region. The following are the Division 1 schools outside our region with a similar “college experience” as UF that our graduates have gone to over the past four years:
Missouri - 59
Colorado - 39
Alabama - 38
TCU - 28
Kansas - 23
Kentucky - 20
Arizona - 15
Wake Forest - 13
Southern Cal - 11
Texas at Austin - 10
SMU - 9
Auburn - 8
Miami - 7
Mississippi - 7
Tulane - 7
Syracuse - 5
UCB - 4
UCLA - 4
Oregon - 4
South Carolina - 4
Virginia - 4
Only a handful have applied to UF, and none have gone. UF has also been a no show for our college fair (close to 250 schools attend) the last couple of years.
@Zinhead Yeppers, they don’t have regional recruiters. That’s the first step (the Big 10 states first, seems to be the plan).
@NewYorker404 My S applied last year OOS and received the Gator Nation scholarship. $80k is actually $10k/semester (fall or spring only, not useable towards summer or study abroad). Award letter was received mid March, after deadline to apply to honors college. We didn’t even know about the scholarship in advance. Definitely merit and not based at all on need. You asked Stats: they really look at the whole application, so stats are awk but here u go: 4.45 GPA, 2270 SAT, 34 ACT (both taken just one time), 800 on math II, 780 physics, heavy EC including sports, arts, service and leadership experiences. UF is a fantastic school if a fit for you. I wouldn’t spend the money to attend UM; Coral Gabels… Look at the crime rates in Miami, and housing. My S attends a smaller private elsewhere. UF was the only large state school he would have considered. Look closely at the community of learners you’ll be a part of, and how they/it aligns with your values and goals - that’s really an important piece of college life. Good luck!
@NewYorker404 Interesting how it seems like our kids (and us, when we were of that age) want out of the state they live in. The only in state school my D16 applied was UF. Not because that’s the only one she wants to attend. But because we made her apply to 1 in state school.
We are facing a similar dilemma with ALL the oos schools.
Isn’t it all relative.
I haven’t read any of the replies yet, but in my opinion, the cost of attendance of an out of state school is not worth it unless you get a significant scholarship or the school is very very prestigious. Once you get into college, you will see that a lot of employers don’t base their judgement on whether they want to hire you or not by the school you go to, but rather by what you have done in your college career as an individual. For example, someone from an ivy league who has a lower than average GPA and has done no extra curriculars, internships, or any out of class activities will not be seen more favorably than say someone who goes to a lesser known university but has outstanding experience and GPA. Also, I often see many lower ranked colleges get favored by large, prestigious companies. For example, Lockheed Martin in Orlando seems to hire a majority of their interns from UCF even though it is not on par with a university like UF. This is most likely the case since UCF is in the same city as this Lockheed facility. So, even if you don’t go to the top ranked school, in general it really won’t determine how successful you are in the future.
Zinhead, I could not agree with you more. I recently heard a PR spiel by a SUNY which was being played instead of music while holding for someone to pick up the phone. It was a squeaky female talking and squealing with delight about the “premier” school and she let out a squeal every time she mentions how premier the school is. It was such a slimly attempt to sell the school in a way that is such a disconnect with what the school is really like and it was clearly pitched to 16 year olds who view college like summer camp. SUNY spends money on propaganda instead of improving the schools. Yes they have great student centers and swanky admissions buildings but check out the libraries and the academic buildings! Talk about stepping back in to the 1970s. And could more students be packed into them? Michigan, Maryland and Florida don’t seem to feel it necessary to play mantras of “we are premier we are premier we are premier” . Why? Because they are very good schools. People know that to be true so the schools see no reason to have to convince people by piping messages to convince people they are a lot better than they are.
Last year UF was 8% OOS (and another 4% international). I’m betting this year’s class will be closer to 10% OOS (and still around 4% international). That’s not bad for a state school that doesn’t offer much in merit or need based aid to OOS students and does little to no marketing (and isn’t named Berkeley, Michigan or UVA).
I live in Florida and my daughter never got a nice big glossy from UF (or anything from UF). My son’s a junior and he’s already gotten mail from Caltech, etc., nothing from UF. They must spend the marketing funds on beer…
Thanks to everyone for your responses! Lots of great information and opinions here. My daughter was rejected so guess we dont have to worry about the tuition cost. But its good to keep in mind for the other schools we are going to look at. Good luck to everyone and their decisions.
@FINKELLY aw. Tell her chin up, and don’t take it personally. It’s selective. Last year the Valedictorian at my N instate private HS was rejected. And if she’s considering grad school, one day, she may still be a Gator. Good luck to her!