University of Florida Ranked #4 Best University Value by Forbes

[FlaBoy]

Maybe, if Jax wants to see more innovation and high paying jobs come our way, a nice selling point would be building stronger connections with the school 60 miles away with a medical school here that is ranked #4 by Forbes...

University of California, Berkeley is the No. 1 Best Value College for the second year in a row, followed by UCLA and Princeton University. The top 10 include two more U.C. schools -- U.C. Irvine (No. and U.C. Davis (No. 9). University of Florida, the South's only school in the top 10, comes in at No. 4. The super-elite schools make a strong showing, with Harvard University, MIT and Stanford University at Nos. 5, 6 and 7, respectively. Brigham Young University in Provo, UT, rounds out the top at No. 10.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/04/26/best-value-colleges-2017-300-schools-worth-the-investment/#6c269b40c11d

Methodology:

Quality (25%) + alumni earnings (20%) + median student debt (20%) + on-time graduation (15%) + drop-out risk (10%) + Pell Grant recipients (10%) / gross tuition and fees.

Top 25

1) Berkeley
2) UCLA
3) Princeton
4) Florida
5) Harvard
6) MIT
7) Stanford
UC-Irvine
9) UC-Davis
10) BYU
11) UC-San Diego
12) Duke
13) Yale
14) Rice
15) UNC
16) Amherst
17) Cornell
18) Dartmouth
19) Cal Tech
20) UVA
21) Georgetown
22) UC-Santa Barbara
23) Brown
24) Vanderbilt
25) Wellesley

[acme54321]

Where's FSU??

[Tacachale]

Where's FSU??

#77.
https://www.forbes.com/colleges/florida-state-university/

Good for UF, but I'd be interested to know what "stronger connections" could be made with a school that's over 70 (not 60) miles away and serves students from across the state, other than UF Health and some few extension offices.

[remc86007]

Build a high-speed train from downtown Jax to UF. (I know that won't happen).

Perhaps some variation on what FSU does with its Panama City campus? The presence of UNF and JU here makes that less necessary/practical though.

I'd love to see UF's college of design, construction, and planning, and college of law do something in Jacksonville. I'm not sure what exactly would be practical, but anything Jax can do to funnel UF graduates into Jacksonville would be good.

[Sonic101]

The College of Engineering would be great. Hopefully spur some R&D growth in Jax. I still see Jax as pretty weak for engineering opportunities in general.

[FlaBoy]

I honestly think there are several great ways to push that UF-Jax relationship.

1) Incentives for New Research in Jax - They have already made an investment with the Medical College, College of Pharmacy, and College of Nursing here in Jax. At every single turn, Jax should be offering UF incentives to establish new research here in Jacksonville. UF does $800 million in research which is 12th in the country. The next closest in Florida is USF with half of that. FSU and UCF do about $200 million in research. We have their Proton Therapy Institute here in Jacksonville but that is it. Everything else is in Gainesville. We should be incentivizing UF to open more research here in Jacksonville in downtown/Springfield at every turn. Get the talent to Jacksonville especially graduate level research in the medical and pharmacy colleges. UF recently built a massive research facility in Orlando at Lake None (where Florida Blue also put a research site, not in Jacksonville). Why not here where they already have facilities? That means money and jobs. There is also the opportunity to collaborate with Mayo. MD Andersen-Baptist, etc, here in Jax. This is stuff the city could easily be facilitating and has been proposed in the past by guys like Rick Mullaney during his mayoral run. The Innovation Hub in Gainesville is killing it with start ups. Sid Martin is #1 in the country as a research incubator. Jax needs to fight for more research. The reason Raleigh/Durham or Austin is rising so quickly is in large part to the research funds and spin off companies formed from that research. Between UNF, JU, FSCJ, Flagler, and potentially more infused research money/talent from UF, you could see huge dividends. One way or another, we are the largest metro near UF, and UF recognizes Gainesville's size has posed a big problem to them through the years.

2) Find New Ways for Partnerships - UCF sort of dominates with their regional campuses throughout all of Central Florida. UF Online though has opened the door to a lot of mobile opportunities. The Legislature poured $25 million into UF Online to make it the premier alternative to brick and mortar campuses. UF and Santa Fe have the UF Connect Program and even have a special engineering program at Santa Fe. There may be opportunities for a better relationship between FSCJ Downtown and UF considering the close proximity of the Medical School, Pharmacy College, and Nursing College to FSCJ. What about 2+2 with UF Online and FSCJ? Or even UF overall with a special program? UNF and FSCJ have the 2+2 but it has yet to be well defined. What about wanting to invest an Engineering program in FSCJ based in downtown near UF facilities that can be a funnel to UF? There is also opportunities for more experiential learning here in Jax where facilities are already for students. Check out what UF just did in South Florida - http://ufcoralgables.com/

3) Improve 301 or build an easier connection between Gainesville and Jax - Downtown Jax and Gainesville are 60 miles from each other. Actually, Gainesville is only 45 miles from Cecil Commerce. 301 has been a mess for years. The Starke Bypass is going to help but we need easier connections that may foster more collaboration between our two cities. There is no reason Gainesville should not be an easy 55-60 minutes drive. Road improvements are needed (although I know that is not popular here) to make it easier. Whether that is making 301 more limited access or building a limited access road off the First Coast Beltway down Normandy that parallels 301 until it meets with the Starke Bypass and heads to Gainesville, I don't know what makes the most sense. But the current ride is an impediment. I would love to see a high speed train but that won't happen in our lifetime. I do know of several UF professors who live in Gainesville and Jacksonville at this point. Several of those professors would consider Jacksonville full-time and commute to Gainesville if 301 wasn't such a mess all the time.

[Tacachale]

^Coordination of resources, especially the healthcare schools, would be a good idea. Unfortunately UF Health is mostly a teaching hospital/local hospital for the urban core and not where most of UF's research is being done. I am not sure what level of incentives could attract something like what's going on  in Orlando, however.

I really don't know where you get the idea that Downtown Jacksonville and Gainesville are only 60 miles apart. They are plainly more than 70 miles apart, and the UF campus is even farther than that. That drive can take an hour and half, and people simply aren't going to commute that far, even if we spend billions to clean up 301. A better connection may help irregular commuters and day trippers get back and forth, but I don't know if it's worth the astronomical cost it would require.

[FlaBoy]

^Coordination of resources, especially the healthcare schools, would be a good idea. Unfortunately UF Health is mostly a teaching hospital/local hospital for the urban core and not where most of UF's research is being done. I am not sure what level of incentives could attract something like what's going on  in Orlando, however.

I really don't know where you get the idea that Downtown Jacksonville and Gainesville are only 60 miles apart. They are plainly more than 70 miles apart, and the UF campus is even farther than that. That drive can take an hour and half, and people simply aren't going to commute that far, even if we spend billions to clean up 301. A better connection may help irregular commuters and day trippers get back and forth, but I don't know if it's worth the astronomical cost it would require.

301 is used by truckers more than any other stretch of non-interstate road in the state. It is a busy corridor between here and Gainesville, one which they originally planned to build in 1988 through Alachua and down to Tampa but never materialized.

[icarus]

It would be nice to have commuter rail down the CSX line ( I believe).   I know my parents used to take a commuter train to Tallahassee from Prime Osborne when they were young.

[RattlerGator]

We're being a bit too generous on the closeness. When I was in school, from my house in Orange Park to Murphree Dorms was 55 miles; that's about the distance from Cecil Commerce as well. From EverBank Field to Ben Hill Griffin is approximately 75 miles.

But, yes, it would be great for greater UF involvement in Jax. Our new President grew up in South Florida and it looks clear to me he wants a greater UF presence down in the population center of this state. UF Coral Gables has already opened.

http://ufcoralgables.com/

We may have to work hard to convince him to look a bit more in our direction given that UF already has such strong, tangible connections to Northeast Florida.

More than likely, we have to get UNF to think a bit more broadly.

[acme54321]

It would be nice to have commuter rail down the CSX line ( I believe).   I know my parents used to take a commuter train to Tallahassee from Prime Osborne when they were young.

Would be cool but no trackage left that would get you anywhere near campus and all of the ROWs in town have been converted to heavily used rail trails.  The last rails into town come in from the north and currently terminate at 23rd and I'd bet there hasn't been freight south of 53rd in 5 years so those tracks days are numbered.

[remc86007]

More than likely, we have to get UNF to think a bit more broadly.

If UNF got a fair shake from the Board of Governors, it would be significantly more competitive and a bigger asset than it already is to the community.

Performance based funding is largely what has held back UNF and the other smaller state universities since the metrics used are largely arbitrary. UNF takes a big hit in its "performance score" because it has many non-traditional (older) students that have to work while going to school and therefore can't graduate quickly. UNF also has many students that transfer prior to their junior year to the bigger schools because they want that "big college feel"--a sentiment I'll never understand having gone to UNF for undergrad and FSU for law school, I much preferred the smaller academic focused campus of UNF over the sprawling sports focused campuses with drunk frat guys and sorority girls strewn about of FSU, UF, and UCF, but I digress.

I think Jacksonville's economic success is largely tied to the strength of its universities (and colleges). Cleaning up and redeveloping Arlington will surely help JU, I wonder what the city could do to help UNF?

[RattlerGator]

UNF made a very conscious decision to *not* go the route of the Big 4 New Urban universities; FIU, FAU, USF, UCF. I can't fault them for that, and with academia in a serious bubble that's about to pop, I can't fault them.

But they could seemingly do more downtown. I keep thinking they're going to do something with Rummell's HealthyTownDistrict development. We shall see.

[Tacachale]

More than likely, we have to get UNF to think a bit more broadly.

If UNF got a fair shake from the Board of Governors, it would be significantly more competitive and a bigger asset than it already is to the community.

Performance based funding is largely what has held back UNF and the other smaller state universities since the metrics used are largely arbitrary. UNF takes a big hit in its "performance score" because it has many non-traditional (older) students that have to work while going to school and therefore can't graduate quickly. UNF also has many students that transfer prior to their junior year to the bigger schools because they want that "big college feel"--a sentiment I'll never understand having gone to UNF for undergrad and FSU for law school, I much preferred the smaller academic focused campus of UNF over the sprawling sports focused campuses with drunk frat guys and sorority girls strewn about of FSU, UF, and UCF, but I digress.

I think Jacksonville's economic success is largely tied to the strength of its universities (and colleges). Cleaning up and redeveloping Arlington will surely help JU, I wonder what the city could do to help UNF?

THIS. The metrics are arbitrary and detrimental. Another that always gets us is cost per undergraduate degree. Big schools milk this one by having huge student bodies, having huge class sizes, and having grad students and adjucts teach a lot of basic classes. Because UNF focuses on small class sizes and teacher interaction, the cost is higher and we get punished for one of our great strengths. Speaking personally, I got a much better education at UNF than I got at UF.

What the city could do for UNF is an interesting question. They've worked pretty well together in a lot of regards. On the city's end I'd say one thing that could be done would be helping to better integrate the campus into the surrounding area with redone roads and bike and pedestrian paths. It's strange how many roads around the UNF entrance don't have that.

[remc86007]

Maybe integrate a First Coast Flyer stop?

I totally agree on the quality of education offered at UNF vs the bigger schools. The small class sizes and one on one interactions with the professors lead to much more efficient and effective learning. I was quite a bit ahead of many of my colleagues in law school that came from the bigger schools in reading and writing ability due to classes I took at UNF. Similarly, my wife who transferred from UNF to FSU her junior year to follow me to Tallahassee (she's part of the aforementioned detrimental statistic, I know), commented numerous times on the stark difference in quality of education between UNF and FSU that she observed (the former being better).