14 Florida schools make best colleges and universities in America list by WalletHub

Kim Luciani, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·2 min read

Good news for higher education in the Sunshine State: Fourteen Florida schools made WalletHub's best colleges and universities list for 2024.

The University of Florida was tops statewide and ranked 19th nationally, followed by Florida State University at No. 62 in the nation.

Overall, Yale took top honors, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, Caltech and Harvard rounding out the top five.

To determine its rankings, WalletHub, a personal finance company, compared 800 higher-education institutions across 30 key measures in these seven categories:

  1. Student selectivity

  2. Cost and financing

  3. Faculty resources

  4. Campus safety

  5. Campus experience

  6. Educational outcomes

  7. Career outcomes

For the purpose of the study, schools offering only undergraduate or baccalaureate degrees were considered colleges, while institutions offering graduate, including master's and doctoral degree programs, were considered universities, WalletHub said.

How Florida colleges and universities ranked on WalletHub's list

Fourteen Florida schools are on WalletHub's list of the best colleges and universities in the U.S.:

  • 19. University of Florida

  • 62. Florida State University

  • 90. University of Miami

  • 145. University of South Florida

  • 153. University of Central Florida

  • 174. Florida Polytechnic University

  • 194. Florida A&M University

  • 203. University of Tampa

  • 262. Florida Southern College

  • 280. Florida International University

  • 372. University of North Florida

  • 388. University of West Florida

  • 432. Florida Institute of Technology

  • 478. Nova Southeastern University

Source: WalletHub

Top 10 colleges ranked by WalletHub

  1. Yale University

  2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  3. Princeton University

  4. California Institue of Technology

  5. Harvard University

  6. Duke University

  7. Rice University

  8. Northwestern University

  9. Johns Hopkins University

  10. Stanford University

2 Florida universities ranked among worst in student-faculty ratio

Caltech and MIT had the best student-faculty ratio, followed by Carnegie Mellon, Princeton, Stanford and the University of Chicago, WalletHub reported.

There was a five-way tie for worst, including two Florida schools: California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, Georgia State University, Grambling State University, Southeastern University in Lakeland and the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Best and worst admission rates

Caltech and Harvard tied for lowest admission rates, Columbia, MIT and Stanford were tied for third.

Emmaus Bible College, Le Moyne-Owen College, Middle Georgia State University, Nyack College, Roberts Wesleyan College and Southwest Baptist University had the highest admission rates, according to the study.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: WalletHub: 14 Florida schools among top colleges, universities in US