I am having a hard time deciding and was wondering if you guys could help me out. I got into the honors college at both schools. I received full tuition from Alabama and the highest level of Bright Futures from Florida (remaining price for UF is a non-issue). Essentially I like the campus and feel of Alabama a lot more, but I feel like it would be dumb to pass up on UF honors college due to the prestige of the university. I appreciate any help, thanks.
If you can figure out would you please let my son know the answer because he is in the same boat. 
We don’t have much time left to decide. The only difference is that he did not apply to honors college at UF.
What are you planning to study?
Here is my thread on the same topic. I posted it in the UA forum because I wanted to hear the best arguments for UA. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1864620-ua-or-uf.html#latest
Of course, I’ll post my answer as soon as I am able to decide myself.
As of right now I am planning on majoring in business, but there is definitely a possibility that that could change in the future.
I think you should do UAlabama, because you got a full tuition and you said you liked the campus, and you got honors, if you add it up thats more than UF offered
For us, with Bright Futures, UF is $1-$2K less per year than UA, even with UA full tuition covered. My son would prefer the suite housing at UA which is a little more expensive.
I don’t know much about UF or UA’s business schools OP - sorry about that! My son is more STEM oriented.
We loved UA’s campus too.
For business, particularly Finance or Accounting, UF is a better choice.
Does anyone have any idea as to which one will have better networking following graduation?
You will have better business placement opportunities out of UF than UA. Most finance, accounting, and consulting hiring is done at the top schools on a regional basis. UF is the top school in the State of Florida, and it gets recruited by regional and national firms doing business throughout the state. The major competition for UF grads would be FSU on a statewide basis, and Miami and USF/UCF/FAU/FIU on a regional level.
The only major CBSA in Alabama is Birmingham, which is a somewhat smaller city than the major markets in Florida. Additionally, Birmingham and Atlanta are very close, and most national companies choosing a location in the region will place it in Atlanta, not Birmingham. While UA will have a good network in Birmingham, firms in Atlanta have a plethora of schools to recruit from, and Alabama grads would be competing with Emory, Tech, Georgia, Clemson, UT, FSU, UF, UNC, Auburn and a few other schools for interview slots. While Atlanta is a bigger market than any individual market in Florida, the fact that UF grads have top choice in South Florida, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville and the various smaller CBSAs means that their placement will be better.
Additionally, within Alabama, UA and Auburn traditionally have had strengths in different areas. While UA has exploded in size recently, Auburn traditionally has had the stronger business program.
Of course, once you have your first job, the undergraduate degree does not matter that much, but the quality of the first job can shape the trajectory of your career. Good luck with your choice.
Thanks for all your help. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have decided to enroll at UF; the educational benefits seem to far outweigh my preference for the Alabama campus. Good luck with all of your decisions!
Florida is honestly quite a bit better than Alabama in most respects, particularly business. In my opinion, it’s not even very close. UF all the way.
Both schools have fairly active alumni. I would recommend using LinkedIn to get a sense of what fields and location, alumni work and live in. Currently UF’s Alumni network is larger, and a bit more dispersed across the country.
UA has recently greatly increased it’s enrollment, however, historically, UF has been a much larger school, so it’s has about double the number of Alumni. For example, in LinkedIn, you find about 125K UA alumni (6K that work in Finance, 3.1K that work in accounting) and about 255K UF alumni (10.6K in Finance, 4.2K in accounting). UF alumni also currently tend to be more national. As time goes by, the same will happen with UA alumni (with their recent increase in OOS students).
Also keep in mind that having more Alumni doesn’t make UF a better school, it’s just one factor out of many to consider.
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/alumni?id=17740&trk=edu-up-nav-menu-alumni
Top 3 locations for UA Alumni:
United States: 121,298
Birmingham, Alabama Area: 21,764
Tuscaloosa, Alabama Area: 19,375
Greater Atlanta Area: 10,758
UF’s info:
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/edu/alumni?id=18120&trk=edu-up-nav-menu-alumni
In comparison, UF has 11.3K in Atlanta, and 10.6K in New York.
Well if you have trouble financially with Uf than I would say alabama.However on a normal circumstance most would choose Uf honors cause that looks extremely well on a job application.Thats my opinion and preference though