UF ranked No. 6 on The New York Times’ third annual “Top Colleges Doing the Most for the American Dream.”
The Times created these rankings based on a combination of the number of lower- and middle-income students a college enrolls and the price it charges these students.
UF spokesperson Steve Orlando said this ranking could be attributed to UF’s Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars program.
Created in 2006, he said the FOS is designed to pay all expenses for first-generation college students with annual household incomes of $40,000 or less.
Orlando said nearly 2,000 FOS students have graduated since the program started.
“I think the ranking sends a strong message to those students and their families that UF is a place where they are welcome and where they will find the financial assistance and support they need,” he wrote in an email.
Orlando said a little more than 25 percent of the roughly 6,800 freshmen admitted in 2015 received Pell Grants, which is federal government money given to students who need help paying for college.
Orlando also added that UF students who received Pell Grants in 2009 had a six year overall graduation rate of 87 percent.
Meagan McBride, a 20-year-old UF interior design junior, said as a student who relies on financial support, she is grateful to always have the help of the university.
“It’s amazing that UF is so understanding about different financial backgrounds,” she said.
Contact Catie Wegman at cwegman@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter: @catie_wegman.
