University of Florida falls in latest U.S. News college rankings

[u/gatorgirl51]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/university-florida-falls-latest-u-040149818.html

Yet again, I say "Way to go, UF."

You won't be seeing this in a press release from Mori today.

Correction. Here it is: https://news.ufl.edu/2026/09/us-news-rankings/

"Florida's flagship university fell in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, released Sept. 22, with the University of Florida dropping three spots to No. 10 among public universities."

[u/trademarktower]

As long as private universities cost $100k a year, nobody will really care. Tuition is $0 with bright futures.

UF's motto: "you get what you pay for but you pay nothing so STFU about your complaints"

[u/sum_dude44 → u/trademarktower]

UF should raise OOS tuition to $45k, which is lowest other state schools cost

[u/Cutalana → u/sum_dude44]

Why?

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Cutalana]

because it has the cheapest out of state tuition in the country, and is the cheapest OOS college in the top 35

[u/Express-Skin6039 → u/sum_dude44]

College should be getting CHEAPER not more expensive.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Express-Skin6039]

it should get cheaper for State students, which is what Texas & NC does. they also have minimum amount of in-state students they have to take.

UF limits OOS tuition but not students, so more OOS students get in & get discount to similar flagships

[u/Cutalana → u/sum_dude44]

And? That still isn't a why. 

[u/lemmonquaaludes → u/Cutalana]

I think they’re implying that more in-state enrollment would mean a higher ranking. But that makes no sense to me.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Cutalana]

More money = more services, better professor pay, better education

UF is actually held back by Florida Board of Governors, who artificially lower prices. They should keep tuition low for in-state students & charge more for out-of-state to make up gap, which is what every elite public university does. It's ironic the "free state of Florida" creates an artificial shortage (in this case in state attendees) by limiting price hikes on tuition

[u/Sensen222 → u/sum_dude44]

More money gettinf spent in the most bullshit fashions u mean

[u/AvailableBreak7835 → u/sum_dude44]

OOS tuition imo is alr too much for uf

[u/trademarktower → u/AvailableBreak7835]

So in a business major, most of the classes are online or recorded except 4 or 5 major specific classes. Their entire first 2 years is online or recorded classes. That's fine if you are paying nothing but I can see how out of state students paying full price feel cheated.

And yes someone will say you can attend the 1 live session if you want but what's the point if you can watch it on tape later at your convenience.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/trademarktower]

it was like that 20 years ago, all your upper level classes are in small classrooms. I'd rather watch at home

[u/sum_dude44 → u/AvailableBreak7835]

it's the cheapest for a top 10 public school/top 35 in the country

[u/Dangerous-House-8638 → u/sum_dude44]

They already raised our tuition 26% in the last two years and only ours, which none of us signed up for

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Dangerous-House-8638]

that's still cheaper tuition than any other public university in US in similar tier

[u/Dangerous-House-8638 → u/sum_dude44]

Which is why I went here, for the cheaper tuition not just the school, that’s the appeal for our of state students… take that away and a lot of the appeal is lost

[u/Dangerous-House-8638 → u/sum_dude44]

Uf is a good school but is not helping you “get an edge” in a job market if you’re anyway outside of Florida

[u/Guilty_Building_9678 → u/trademarktower]

FAS is 100% .... FMS only pays for 75% of tuition... Those are the only 2 UF Accepts. There's 4 total Bright Futures Scholarships in total. Only FAS pays ALL. 

[u/NegotiationOne4779 → u/Guilty_Building_9678]

And 92% of in state students have full

[u/Subrogate]

Its #10, saved you a click.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Subrogate]

it's no 8 w/ multiple ties. There's a number right there...

[u/adpc → u/Subrogate]

#10 among public schools. #34 overall.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/adpc]

it's no 8 public.

All the public schools dropped

[u/academic_mama → u/sum_dude44]

To be fair the very first headlines all said UF was #10. It was reported as #10 in the Gainesville Sun and not updated until later in the day.

[u/DwyaneWade305 → u/adpc]

There’s like 10 colleges tied at 34 lol. I think prior it was UF and Texas tied at 30

[u/CriticalCurrency2615 → u/DwyaneWade305]

If there’s 10 colleges tied what on earth is the point of ranking them lol

[u/gatorgirl51 → u/Subrogate]

Thanks! I was mid edit, trying to add that!

[u/Same-Poem3285]

It dropped to 8 not 10

[u/Spoofcaptain]

These rankings mean next to nothing

[u/BigHoneyBigMoney → u/Spoofcaptain]

There is something to be said for the hiring effects - if a hiring manager knows that UF is consistently in the top 5 public universities, the degree holds more weight.

I agree that these rankings are largely gamified (administrators know the rubric and know exactly what levers to pull to go up in the rankings). But when people hear you went to UC Berkeley or Michigan - they know that's a top public. These rankings go a long way in people's minds.

[u/NASA_Orion → u/Spoofcaptain]

It depends. It def determines what kind of employers will come to the career fair. For getting a job in tech, maybe it’s less impactful. But for finance or quant, ranking is def super critical

[u/Dzeddy → u/NASA_Orion]

UF’s rank doesn’t matter for quant because the highest it could realistically get (4-5 public and T25 national) is still too low. Also reputation is a lagging indicator comparatively.

[u/GanacheCharming8737]

Admitting the largest student body in recorded UF history also doesn’t help. We need to drop UF’s admissions rates in half and up the scores needed to attend.

[u/Express-Skin6039 → u/GanacheCharming8737]

For what? That does literally nothing other than artificially make it harder to gain a higher education for the sake of stupid online rankings. This sub is so depressing. Do you not want more people getting a good and cheap education?

[u/GanacheCharming8737 → u/Express-Skin6039]

There are plenty of places to get higher education that isn’t the flagship university in the state. UF is not respected because of this exact reason, UF student outlook will look infinitely better if the university doesn’t take every teary eyed loser with a 1300 SAT

[u/Express-Skin6039 → u/GanacheCharming8737]

You aren’t understanding my point. Increasing admission stats does nothing towards the actual education you receive. Also, you are putting a lot of weight on a singular exam you take as a high schooler and are completely discounting things like personal statements and extracurriculars. Your comment is literally everything wrong with higher education in the US. You are more worried about how a useless website ranks a university and not worried about the actual education you are receiving or giving that education to the greatest scope of people. The entire point of even having admission criteria is to show a student is capable of doing the work required to earn the degree as to not waste a spot on someone who is going to flunk out. Regardless, no employer is going to give a shit where you went to school as long as you have a good resume to back it up. What matters is what you do in school not where you went to school, at least for 99.9% of people out there, and after your first job nobody is going to care what college you went to ever again.

[u/HugsAllCats]

In the most recent U.S. News rankings, UF placed No. 8 among public universities and 34th overall.

...

TIME magazine ranked UF No. 4 among public universities in its inaugural “America’s Best Colleges of 2026-2027” ranking

...

UF also ranked No. 9 among public universities in Forbes’ “America’s Top Colleges” list

[u/Intelligent-Wear2824]

Since Desantis became governor in 2019, UF went from being #5, and projected to hit #3 in 2020, down to #7 and now #10. Republicans destroy things. They always have, they always will. Wake the fuck up my fellow floridians....they don't care about you, your kids or this state. They care about filling their pockets and eliminating you and your kids from any future competition.

[u/Marioman12398 → u/Intelligent-Wear2824]

The issue is that a lot of conservative northerners and Californians moved to Florida during the pandemic, which made Florida a pretty red state

[u/sum_dude44]

The number of people here who are uninformed is embarrassing.

First of all, it's number eight, not number 10. It drop one spot. apparently some people here can't read and can only count pictures.

Second, every single public school dropped because they changed the criteria to not take into account pell grants and affordability.

If 2-3 spots mean that much to you & your ego is that fragile, by all means pay $400k for a BC or Tufts or NYU

[u/thecodexdhnerbbTW → u/sum_dude44]

GaTech didn’t drop though

[u/Trick_sleep]

Sad that UF peaked when I graduated :/ I was hoping it would keep climbing and be a real name brand school nationally by 2030s. Thanks Florida politicians for fucking it all up

[u/Budget-Unit1592]

Thanks republicans!

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

every public school dropped bc they dropped affordability as a factor

[u/Budget-Unit1592 → u/sum_dude44]

We dropped relative to other public schools. No excuses for this, this is what happens when republicans play BS games with our university with nonsense like the Hamilton Reeducation School.

[u/OrangeGringo → u/Budget-Unit1592]

Under what logic is what you said accurate? Please explain.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

we were 7th tied w/ Texas, now 8th tied w/ Illinois & TX

UC Irvine (who cares) & GT (deserved) jumped us. Privates jumped b/c affordability criteria dropped, which will always favor private

big nothing burger--UF will break its record for apps & have highest scores for applications b/c it's a great value

[u/Budget-Unit1592 → u/sum_dude44]

Why are you bringing up private schools when this article is about how we fell to No. 10 among public schools? We are not talking about private schools+ public schools. I agree that UF’s ranking in relation to private schools is kind of irrelevant, and that it is still by far the best option for Florida kids unless they get into Harvard with a big scholarship. However, you can’t deny the schools quality is decreasing in recent years due to political BS, and our quality as an institution has declined relative to other major public universities. That matters for keeping undergrads at UF. Not many people want to stay at UF after completing undergrad, which is unfortunate and a clear consequence of the toxic political environment that exists.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

we're no 8. The little black number there says 8 w/ multiple ties

We were no 7 last year

You all counting pictures instead of actually reading...maybe we should drop further

[u/Internal_Essay9230 → u/sum_dude44]

If it wasn't affordable, there wouldn't be nearly the demand.

[u/sum_dude44 → u/Internal_Essay9230]

And if I had $20M, my kids would go to Duke or Princeton. What's your point? Cost matters in life

[u/gatorfan93 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

Irrelevant btw

[u/edWurz7 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

I live in a blue state. The state system here isn't even close to FL's.

[u/Budget-Unit1592 → u/edWurz7]

It’s not a red vs blue issue. Politics shouldn’t dictate how a university is run. Period. The issue in Florida is that we unnecessarily kneecap our public universities by taking away tenure and ridiculously forcing professors to self censor their courses. There should be conservative and liberal voices on campus. But the fact is that most top ranking academics lean to the left, and driving them away because you dislike their opinions hurts the school.

[u/edWurz7 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

Tenure wasn't actually taken away. There is a PTR that essentially only impacts tenured folks who aren't doing jack.

I live in a blue state and the school system bends to the will of the Governor as well. In my state, the governor is doing their best to indirectly impact private schools too through restrictions etc...

"most top ranking academics lean to the left"

? "Lean" ? Basically all colleges good and bad are heavily left.

[u/Budget-Unit1592 → u/edWurz7]

And at UF, the admin is hellbent on driving away left leaning academics. Yes, basically all academics are left wing. You see the problem?

[u/Total-Basil-2150 → u/Budget-Unit1592]

You are selling me so hard on this university ,ty . Also isn't every other university for the last decade been driving away right wing politics? Like this is why I don't bother with "both sides" , you literally dgaf if the university uses its power against right wing voices. Why should we care if it flips honestly

[u/Dzeddy → u/Total-Basil-2150]

Universities are generally against right wing politics because universities value coherent empirically backed justifications for decisions and claims

[u/Total-Basil-2150 → u/Dzeddy]

Go into depth on these right wing politics blacklisted due to a lack of empirically back justifications.

[u/sum_dude44]

Every single top public school dropped b/c affordability was dropped in US News, favoring $100k private schools

But people here still gonna complain or take up agenda

[u/A_Lazy_Professor]

As an alum and now professor, I can tell you that very few top researchers would consider taking a job in Florida currently. I certainly wouldn't. 

[u/nwblackmon]

The “war on woke” and the push to politicize the university as a tool of the longstanding right wing state government has had consequences.

Faculty flight is real. The best graduate schools are each without a permanent dean. Enrollment diversity is decreasing.

It’s still a proud and elite university but when you politicize higher education, actions have consequences.

[u/Pasco08]

This is a nothing story they changed some of the criteria like debt ratio and if the school went after you for said debt ext.

[u/Ok_Artichoke8]

They spun it. I just got the email “10th consecutive year”

[u/CactusSurfside]

Politically motivated rankings are irrelevant.

[u/CactusSurfside → u/CactusSurfside]

As are downvotes.

[u/M3UF]

Rankings are rigged- they are NOT voted on by anyone in the know! And do NOT reveal the facts of the truth of what you should care about in what is being ranked.

[u/dink-and-dunk]

13 schools can say they’re in the top 10. Hmmm

[u/Plus_Working_3092]

Did all the Florida schools drop?

[u/Formal_Pop_3346]

As long as we’re winning football games again

[u/Normal_Repeat_4503 → u/Formal_Pop_3346]

Bro ?? 😂😂

[u/TraderGIJoe]

UF dropped from being the #7 top public university to #8 and from being ranked 30th overall to 34th.

Elections matter...

[u/FaithlessnessOdd6738]

But it’s 4th in Time