UF Preeminence Aspirations

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Florida
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For those of you still trying to decide between UF and a more expensive college higher up in the prestige ladder, you should look into the UF Preeminence Plan. The genesis of the idea for the preeminence plan is that our state’s legislature and governor want to advance Florida’s colleges, both public and private, to be more appropriate for our position as the third most populous state in the nation. Currently, UF is the highest ranked school in Florida at #42 in US News, and Miami is a few steps back at #46.

But look at all the great colleges in California: Cal Tech, Stanford, Harvey Mudd, Ponoma, Claremont McKenna, Scripps, USC, Berkeley, Occidental, UCLA, UCSB, UC Irvine, and UCSD. Yes, California has twice the population, but they have more than twice the options in colleges than those offered in Florida.

California’s economy benefits from its ready access to all those smart graduates, and our state’s leadership wants to do more to attract those kids here. Being the state’s flagship university, UF is getting the most attention for advancement. They have met their goal of getting on the list of Top 10 Public colleges, and now their stated goal is to be in the Top 5 Public schools.

To get there, UF will have to jump over the likes of UC Irvine, UCSD, UCSB, Georgia Tech, William and Mary, UNC, and UVA. I believe that they will do it given the logic of the goal and the commitment from the state government.

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http://ufpreeminence.org/

From a student’s standpoint, the biggest impact from the preeminence plan will be the significant increase in “senior” faculty and increased funding in the preeminence “focus” areas.

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@Gator88NE
I agree about the faculty and the campus and community improvements will be what the students see. Reducing the student-to-professor ratio will also bring about smaller classes, which the ranking agencies apparently like to see in the higher rankings. Of course, this is from the short-term perspective during the students undergrad days. Looking on toward grad school and their careers, they will benefit from UF’s continued rise into the ranks of the more prestigious universities, which is important to a lot of students and their parents. Florida’s surging population deserves to have one of the nation’s very top universities, and I believe that it will be UF.