The 2023 top five public universities are grouped in three tiers: UC Berkeley and UCLA tied at No. 1; Michigan and Virginia tied at No. 3, and UF and the University of North Carolina,-Chapel Hill tied at No. 5. The top-five group also has become smaller; last year, UF was in a three-way tie with UNC-Chapel Hill and UC Santa Barbara.
UF’s No. 5 ranking in 2022 marked a climb of nine spots on the public university list since 2017.
They’ve figured out how to rise in the USNews ranking.
However, by academic reputation, the top 10+ are more like this:
UF rise the US News ranking is based on two key factors.
Students. They are exceptional. High Test scores, High graduation rates, etc. It’s the outstanding students that started UF’s rise in the rankings.
State investment. Due to continue funding from the State, UF has significantly increased it’s funding per student. It added more than 600 full-time faculty over the past three years. UF’s student/faculty ratio is now 17-to-1 and more than half of undergraduate classes have fewer than 20 students. New facility construction is never ending. Parking is still #$^$.
UF’s peer assessment is only a 3.8. It will take years to overcome folks preconceptions around UF (and any southern public university). In fact, UF’s recent move to a top 5 university was due to an improvement in the peer assessment.
On the other hand, UF is doing an exceptional job in other areas (that don’t directly impact the US News rankings) that in the long run will finally impact peer assessment. Items like reaching the $1B mark in yearly research spending, etc.
As a parent (and Alumni) UF and the State of Florida are doing all of the things I would like them to do to improve performance, reputation and student outcomes. I can wait on “peer assessment”.
You mean like Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech?
Haha…Virginia (1816) and UNC (1789) have been viewed as top colleges for over a century. the US News first ranking in 1983 (or 85) had them 15 and 9 overall. Texas was ranked 25th.
Now, GT is an interesting case. It wasn’t even ranked until 96 (at 42), the first year UF was ranked (at 47). GT was always a well thought of school in the southeast. What’s driven it up in the ratings is two things. Research* and OOS student demand. GT has become a popular OOS engineering destination. Almost 1/2 of it’s undergraduates are from OOS.
When schools have to compete against you (GT) for students, you get noticed. GT’s score has gone from a 4.1 in 2013 to a 4.3 this year (same as UVA). A one point shift is huge (it’s what moved UF into the top 10), but a 2 point shift in less than 10 years is impressive.
UNC is 4.2 and Texas is 4.1 for comparison. Same as they where in 2013.
*On research, a lot of GT faculty have gone up to run engineering departments (as deans or department heads) at other schools. That, I’m sure, has also helped it’s reputation with college presidents and provost!
Others may like a better understanding of how US News comes up with the rankings (spoiler, it’s questionable at best!). Lets look at UF vs GT and why UF is higher ranked, even though GT has a better “Peer assessment” score.
At a high level, the ranking is based on the following factors. For example, class size makes up 8% of the score and it’s under Faculty Resources which makes up 20% of the overall score.
Expert Opinion (20%)
Outcomes (40%)
Faculty Resources (20%)
Financial Resources (10%)
Student Excellence (7%)
Alumni Giving (3%)
Expert Opinion (20%):
GT’s score is higher. This score is based on survey results from Presidents, Provost and deans of admissions (or similar titles).
Outcomes (40%):
UF score is higher, and this is where the rankings get wonky. UF and GT have about the same graduation and retention rates (89% vs 90% and both have a 97% freshmen retention rate), which makes up 22% of the score. However, US News uses something called “predictive graduation rates” (8% of the score), and here GT underperforms (it’s students have better test scores/class rankings then UF, so it should have a better graduation rate).
Remember that ½ of the students are OOS? GT students have to borrow more (2%) and are more indebted (3%).
Students with Pell grants (lower socioeconomic status) also do better at UF (graduation rates) (5%). At GT, there is a 6 point spread between having a Pell Grant (87%) and not (93%), at UF it’s 2 points (89% vs 91%).
Faculty Resources (20%):
UF score is higher. GT’s faculty compensation is better (7%), but that’s expected as engineering faculty are some of the highest paid faculty at a university. The % of Faculty that’s full-time is about the same, but GT has a much lower % of faculty with terminal degrees (1%).
It’s class size (8%) that makes the difference. UF has far more classes with fewer than 20 students, less classes with 50 or more, and it’s student-faculty ration is 17 to 1 vs Tech’s 21 to 1.
Financial Resources (10%)
UF is ranked higher than Tech (45 vs 65).
Student Excellence (7%)
Tech is ranked higher than UF (bunch of engineering nerds!) but it’s close. It’s 24 vs 33.
Remember, having “better” students impacted GT’s “predictive graduation rates”, above in outcomes. It’s students had better SAT/ACT scores and a higher % are in the top 10% of their HS class, but the graduation rate was less than predicted.
Alumni Giving (3%)
UF does better (29 vs 52). This is a measure of Alumni engagement and, in a way, how happy they were at their school. It’s also provides the school with additional funds to build facilities, hire faculty, and do research (and scholarships, etc., $ is good). About 20% of UF’s alumni give to the school, each year, vs 14% at Tech.
With all that being said, why does the ranking matter?
Recognition is nice, a lot of folks worked hard at building the university, hiring, recruiting, fund raising, research, teaching, and it’s nice to be recognized as a premier university.
However, in Florida, this success helps to justify the state legislatures policy of increase direct funding of the state university system. The legislature likes to see that the funding is having results, and the rankings help provide that validation. This will lead to continue funding and even an increase (if we’re going to get by UNC, we may need to build a new home for the School of Music! Wait, we’re already getting one of those? How about a new facility for the M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management!)
President Fuchs’ column:
Ranked among the Top 5 public research universities two years in a row. What’s next? https://alligator.org/article
What is next for UF? All of UF’s 16 colleges are stronger today than eight years ago. However, there is much work to be done for UF’s stature to move higher among the very best research universities. Many of our more than 200 academic departments are not considered by their peers to be among the top-10 departments nationwide. The metrics for ranking departments are different than those used to rank the overall university. Every department chair, school director and college dean should understand their department, school and college rank compared to peers and should develop a strategy to improve that ranking.
The only ranking that I use right now is the AP and Florida isn’t ranked in the Top 25. 
AP? I’ve no idea what youre looking at.
Associated Press…football rankings ; )
Got me! Season not over yet!
UCSD isn’t super highly regarded in Texas but I agree that it’s a research and STEM powerhouse.
Florida is definitely moving up and cost is a big factor. If they gave some scholarships to National Merit Commended types (e.g., 1450-low 1500s SATs), they could attract students away from lower ranked Southern colleges.
One concern I have with UF is the amount of online classes but with the low cost, something has to be compromised.
I have a son in his sophomore year. He hasn’t had a single online class.
This can be dependent on major.
100℅