UF’s fall from the No. 1 public university to No. 34 in the Wall Street Journal’s most recent listing shocked students and alumni.
No longer able to sport the “Top 5” banners, students and alumni took to social media to question why a top university’s score changed so drastically.
The methodologies for each ranking list are constantly evolving. The 2024 and 2025 rankings across U.S. News & World Report and the Journal saw a change in methodology to better score universities.
James Walter, a 20-year-old UF accounting junior, was shocked when he saw how the university’s ranking dropped in the Journal’s report.
Walter thinks the new score doesn’t best represent UF, he said. While he didn’t rely on rankings when making his decision to apply, he hopes the new ranking won’t stop students from seeing the value in attending UF.
Walter said he’d be interested in seeing if the methodology for rankings changes in the future. He believed that the Journal’s methodology made sense overall. However, he found some areas odd.
The change in the Journal’s rankings may come from its change in methodology. The biggest change in UF’s score was under salary impact, where UF’s 2024 score was 84, while its 2025 score dropped to 55.
In 2024, salary impact was calculated using a graduate’s estimated salary based on their demographic profile. The Journal then integrated the state’s cost of living into its 2025 report.
“They said they used statistical modeling, which can be very vague,” Walter said. “That wasn’t exactly easy to understand.”
He admitted he didn’t pay attention to the Journal’s rankings until UF ranked No. 1 in the 2024 report. Before that, he focused on rankings from U.S. News & World Report, which is nationally recognized for its various college and university rankings. He wants to understand what led to such a drastic change, he said. However, he believes that UF shouldn’t only take the Journal’s ranking to heart.
“It’s best interest to count whatever sources gives them [UF] the highest ranking, but I feel like it is important to consider a wide variety of sources when looking at school rankings,” he said.
Last year, when UF lost its top five public university placement in U.S. News and World Report, its social media and marketing turned to the Journal, which last year ranked UF as the No. 1 public university in the nation. Despite dropping to No. 34 in the Journal’s 2024 rankings, UF still brands itself as the No. 1 public university in the nation on its official X account.
Each major college ranking publication the university has followed — U.S. News, The Journal and Forbes — follows different methodologies that fluctuate each year. Here is a rundown of how each ranking works.
Forbes
UF ranked No. 4 among the nation’s public universities in Forbes’ Sept. 4 report.
The first criteria Forbes considered was alumni salary (20%). Forbes gathered earnings data to see which universities had the highest-paid graduates after graduating. The next score is determined by the average debt load for students (15%). It multiplied federal loan debt per borrower by the percentage of students who used federal loans.
Graduation rate (15%) was also an important factor. It included a six-year graduation rate that accounted for transfers, part-time students and students who had to take time off from school. Five percent of that is based on Pell Grant recipients’ graduation rates. Universities with more Pell recipients, which are students with exceptional financial need who are given federal grants to pursue a bachelor’s, graduate or professional degree, were given better scores.
Forbes also considered universities with graduates part of the current President’s Cabinet, the Supreme Court, Congress, current governors and winners of awards such as the Nobel Prize, NAACP Awards and Pulitzer Prizes.
Another factor Forbes considers is the university’s return on investment (15%). It’s determined by dividing the price of obtaining the degree by the earnings students get in comparison to the salary of a high school graduate.
The retention rate (10%) is based on the percentage of students who continue to enroll in the university after their first year. Academic success (10%) is based on the number of graduates who win scholarships and the average number of graduates who received a Ph.D. within the previous three years.
Emma Whitford, the Forbes reporter who broke down the methodology, wrote in an email response that Forbes has not decided whether their current methodology will change next year.
“Forbes overhauled its methodology in 2021 to better account for low-income student outcomes,” she wrote. “We’ve used the same methodology since.”
Wall Street Journal
UF celebrated ranking No. 1 public university in the Wall Street Journal’s 2024 ranking. However, in the Journal’s 2025 ranking, UF ranked No. 83 overall and No. 34 among public universities.
The Journal commissioned College Pulse to survey 54,854 students and alumni between January and May 2024. The Journal then added 57,230 responses from the previous year's surveys and excluded any duplicate responses.
The Journal relies on three main components to determine their rankings: student outcomes (70%), learning environment (20%) and diversity (10%).
The student outcomes component is made up of three subcategories: salary impact (33%), years to pay off the net price (17%) and graduation rate impact (20%).
Salary impact estimates graduates’ salaries while considering the cost of living in the university’s state.
The number of years it takes to pay off the net price is determined by the average net price — the costs of tuition and fees, room and board, and books — of attending the college and the value added to graduates’ salaries by attending the institution. The value added to a student’s earnings is based on the difference in earnings between the university’s graduates and high school graduates in the school’s state.
The Journal estimates a college’s graduation rate based on SAT and ACT exam results and the number of students with a family income of more than $110,000 per year. The reason as to why those two factors best determine the graduate rate is not clarified in the methodology. The estimate is then compared with the college’s actual graduation rate.
The learning environment category has five subcategories determined by student surveys. Learning opportunities (4%) are determined by surveys where students reflect on faculty, academic feedback and the quality of their education. Career preparation (4%) is based on student feedback on whether the university offers opportunities for networking, career advice and career support.
Another subcategory is the university’s learning facilities (4%). Students shared whether they were satisfied with their school’s facilities including libraries and classrooms. The recommendation score (4%) is based on whether students would recommend their university. The final subcategory is the character score (4%). This survey determines if students felt as if their university helped them develop wisdom, resilience and a sense of justice.
The final category in the methodology creates a diversity score for the university. Opportunities to “interact with students from different backgrounds” make up 5% of the score. Ethnic diversity (1.7%) is based on whether two students or faculty members from the university picked at random would be of a different ethnicity.
The inclusion of students with lower family earnings (1.7%) generates a score based on the number of students receiving Pell Grants. Lastly, the inclusion of students with disabilities weighs 1.7%.
To be eligible for the Journal’s ranking, institutions must be accredited and eligible for federal financial aid, offer four-year bachelor’s degrees, be located in the U.S. and have more than 750 undergraduates. At least 50 “valid responses” from students or recent alumni from the university would determine if the data would be considered.
The Journal ranked 400 universities for 2024 and 500 for 2025. How the Journal verifies student responses was not specified.
U.S. News & World Report
The U.S. News & World Report’s annual report summarizes factors such as academic success, cost of attendance and return on investment to help students research what university will suit their needs best.
In the 2024 report, UF ranked No. 28 among national universities and No. 6 among public universities. The year before, UF ranked No. 5 for the second year in a row. When UF dropped to No. 6, U.S. News announced in a press release that new rankings would better emphasize social mobility and the success of students from all backgrounds post-graduation.
U.S. News’ methodology analyzes 1,500 U.S. institutions with four-year bachelor’s programs. To be eligible, institutions need regional accreditation, have at least 100 undergraduate students enrolled, a six-year graduation rate for first-year bachelor’s students and report spending to the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. News relies on a longer list of factors to determine a university's rank. The list includes graduation rates (16%) and first-year retention rates (5%), which is an average of first-year students who return for the following fall semester.
Graduation rate performance (10%) is the rolling average comparing U.S. News’ predicted graduation rates between 2013 and 2016 entering classes. If a university exceeded the estimate, then its performance score was higher. It is unclear why 2013 and 2016 are the chosen years.
Other factors include Pell graduation rates (3%), Pell graduation performance (3%), first-generation graduation rates and graduation rate performance (both 2.5%). Pell graduation performance is determined by comparing graduation rates of Pell recipients with non-Pell recipients. Universities with more Pell recipients get a higher score.
Peer assessment (20%) is determined by a survey of university administrators and academics, such as presidents and deans, who rate the “academic quality of peer institutions” on a scale from one to five. The scores are then averaged.
Financial resources (8%) are also considered. U.S. News compares the university’s spending on instruction, research, student services, public service and academic support with its total full-time student enrollment.
A myriad of other factors contribute to the annual rankings, including citations per publication (1.25%) and publications cited in the top 5% of journals (1%).
U.S. News collects data through surveys, and third-party sources are used when universities cannot provide data for a specific ranking factor.
Contact Delia Rose Sauer at drosesauer@alligator.org. Follow her on X @_delia_rose_.
Delia Rose Sauer is a junior journalism student and the Fall 2024 University General Assignment Reporter. This is her second semester on the University Desk. In her free time, she's drawing on Procreate, crocheting or exploring music genres.
