UF’s academics and prestige are not the only factors being calculated in national rankings.
UF ranked No. 12 on The Daily Beast’s list of happiest colleges and No. 22 on its list of sexiest colleges.
The Daily Beast based each university’s happiness ranking on retention rate, overall student experience and a student health center. It used the website Niche, which contains student reviews and polls, for both rankings.
UF spokesman Steve Orlando said UF is considered a happy college because of its high retention rate.
The Daily Beast reported a 96-percent retention rate for UF, which is a strong indicator in determining students’ happiness, and UF’s is historically high, he said.
“The student experience comes from not just what happens in the classroom,” Orlando said.
UF received a score of 6.3 out of 10 for attractive guys and a 7 out of 10 for attractive girls on the site’s sexiest colleges ranking.
Jordan Thomas, a 21-year-old UF chemical engineering senior, said UF’s sexiness and happiness rankings are both something to take notice of nationally.
“Our school’s southern charm is a huge feature of our sexiness factor,” Thomas said. “The students here are happy because we attend such a prestigious college where our future opportunities are endless.”
Jeanna Mastrodicasa, assistance vice president for UF student affairs, collects data about UF students.
She said Student Experience in the Research University is a survey UF uses to gauge students’ happiness and satisfaction with their school. The results are compared with other Association of American Universities members.
Mastrodicasa said the qualities that make UF a happy place are its athletics, the number of student organizations and its diverse Student Body.
“Students are much more satisfied with their social experience when they can connect, be leaders and choose to engage outside the classroom,” she said.
Sixty-nine percent of UF students said they are satisfied with their social experience compared to 64 percent of the AAU members.
Mastrodicasa said this survey has been consistent the past three years, and it is about to be distributed for 2014.
Michael Tessitore, a 20-year-old UF political science and economics junior, said UF students are probably a lot happier than students at Ivy League schools.
“Having an Ivy League degree always looks good in hindsight, but a lot of those students are actually miserable because their work is so hard and time consuming,” Tessitore said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 11/13/2014]
