Ah, I see the selective reading comprehension of a Gator education has reared its ugly head. That's a trash ranking site that the entire world of education laughs at. It's a mid-tier news rag no one reads for news. If you want to run with it to make yourself feel better, buy all means (you're just confirming the ignorance brought on by your UF education - if you even went there), but every one of these schools is more prestigious, provides a better education, provides better job prospects, and would be the preferred choice of anyone with a functioning brain stem:
Elite:
UVA
CAL
UCLA
UNC
Texas
Michigan
Then:
UCSB
UCSD
GT
William & Mary
That's 10 without even trying.
Congratulations btw, I was wrong. UF actually WOULD slip into the top 5... in CA if they were there. Probably. Of course if UF was there and not in a Northern Florida landlocked cow town they would probably draw better students and faculty and be a better school.
UF is in a tier just after with schools like Cal Irvine, Wisconsin, UGA, etc.
You guys have definitely improved, in a period where we took a statistical dip in the rags, so don't think I am being intellectually dishonest, though I know that would be an easy cop out for you. But as someone who has lived on both coasts, including NYC and LA, DC as well as Florida, and other places where things actually happen, and spends time in boardrooms and dabbled in education philanthropy, I can tell you no one and nowhere relevant gives UF a lick of stature. You get lumped in with FSU, Bama, UGA, etc.I other words, you're pretty invisible. It's just a best of the rest situation, which is nice if you want to run a southern fertilizer company one day I guess, but UF is considered a good regional school that isn't even thought of outside of FL and the SEC states.
Let me put it this way... the top law firms in NYC almost exclusively recruit Harvard, Yale, Columbia and NYU law schools. If they do peek under the hood of the next tier, be honest and think how far down the list UF would be. Spoiler: not on the list, even if the missiles were flying. You really think you're even in the conversation with CAL, UCLA, UVA, MICH, UNC? You're 1000 metric miles below them in stature.
Which is why you are predictably most likely from a small to midsize Florida town, and stayed in state to get discounted tuition like most of the rest of your classmates, except for a few bright kids who got bribed to come, and of course the thousands of Santa Fe dregs that feed into your elite university. Then you stayed in-state for your career, as the value of your degree disintegrates once you get out of FL, and goes to almost nothing once you leave the south. You're trapped by your regional education.
Go Crocs.