Time Magazine named UF the fourth best public university and 16th overall in its America’s Best Colleges of 2026-2027 list. Released Tuesday, the ranking placed UF highest among Florida universities, surpassing Florida State University at No. 53 and the University of Central Florida at No. 195.
The rating establishes UF above several other “Public Ivies,” a term commonly used for top state-funded universities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California-Los Angeles, which are often labeled as such, ranked 18 and 34, respectively.
Times’ rankings are based on the outcomes of undergraduate students, with numbers calculated based on factors such as graduates’ earnings, graduation rates and a return on education, which weighs student earnings after graduation with the cost of academics…