The University of Florida fell 33 spots from its No. 1 spot among public universities in The Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) latest rankings.
Last week the WSJ released its 2025 Best Colleges in the U.S. rankings for the top 500 public and private universities. After topping the public universities list and ranking No. 15 overall in last year’s 2024 report, UF slipped to No 34 for public universities and No. 83 overall.
According to The Alligator, UF’s salary impact score for the 2025 rankings – based on graduate’s estimated salaries and the cost of living in Florida – was 55 compared to a score of 84 in 2024. The WSJ calculates the performance on the expected media earnings of students after graduation against the actual earnings.
UF’s graduation rating increased from 94 in 2024 to 100 in 2025 and the university’s diversity increased from 60 in 2024 to 68 in 2025.
The Wall Street Journal has published U.S. college rankings since 2016. Its formula focuses on how much a school improves its students’ chances of graduating on time, along with how much it boosts the salaries that students earn following graduation. The rankings are based on weighted factors that include student outcomes (70%), learning environments (20%) and diversity (10%).
The rankings came out a week after Forbes magazine named UF the No. 4 public university in the nation, a three-spot rise from 2023.
UF has earned high accolades in recent years after being ranked No. 6 by U.S. News and World Report’s top national public universities in September 2023 after back-to-back No. 5 rankings in 2022 and 2021.
The latest rankings come amid leadership changes at UF, starting with former President Ben Sasse’s abrupt resignation in July after only 17 months on the job. Sasse cited his wife’s ongoing health challenges, including a recent epilepsy diagnosis, as the reason for his departure, but he also had a strained relationship with UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini. One of the issues was reportedly how much emphasis to place on national rankings.
What a load of you know what. Babson College? Did anyone visit its website to see what majors are offered? COA is north of $80k. You can find rankings for anything from best food offered by a college, best veteran opportunity, best weather ect. And this ranking is nothing short of a DEI ranking (rising from 116 to 2?). I guess every college needs a ranking for the slideshow at open houses.
The WSJ is conservative media owned by Fox. No one had issues with the them last year when the rating was high–you can’t have it both ways. Universities are typically led by academics with careers in academic administration—not by junior senators collecting favors……just saying.
Well to be fair, their local government did it to them and the political appointments didn’t help. As a hiring manager, as soon as I see this school on a resume, I trash it.