US World & News Report ranks U of F #50 in the world.
US News ranks University of Florida #49 out of America’s national universities and there are 48 national universities ranked higher and around 40 liberal arts colleges ranked higher.
You want to go to the best school you can get into because you will have more success at a smaller school that spends more resources on their students unlike UF where it is a very large school with a lot of students and you are treated like cattle and not an asset to the university. UF is the second largest university in America when it comes to the number of students on one campus.
You want to try very hard to get into an MIT or Stanford because the connections you make there will get you a lot farther than at UF. The MIT’s and Stanford’s focus more on academics than on sports unlike UF where they have cut several grad and undergrad programs and classes but kept their recreational scuba classes. That shows where’s UF focus is. And UF’s rankings are falling because of this.
Don’t focus on present cost of the education unless you are from a family that can’t afford to send you to a top school. But there is plenty of financial aid out there that can help you go to a top school. You just have to go out and look for it. You should focus on the future value of your education.
Academically it is nowhere near the top colleges. If you look at the highly respected unbiased Academic Ratings of the Princeton Review (they do this for their livelihood), they rate University of Florida at a 72 academically. Georgia Tech is only rated a 74.
By comparison other top colleges get much higher marks:
Harvard: 99
MIT: 97
Williams: 98
Holy Cross: 98
Middlebury: 98
Yale: 96
Notre Dame: 92
Georgetown: 92