🎓 Best public colleges in Florida

If you’re going to go to college—or send your child to college—you want to choose the best one. But what exactly that means is different for each person.

There are a lot of factors, including how big the college is both overall and in terms of class sizes. It also matters whether a college has good programs for the fields you’re more interested in studying, the types of sports or other student activities that interest you, decent access to student housing either on or off campus, and a high graduation rate. There’s also life after college to consider: Does a college have a good support system for people seeking employment, a strong alumni network, or a high rate of job placements at or just after graduation?

Colleges themselves suggest the most important factors for students are, or should be, emotional ones, like "whether you feel comfortable on campus," as the University of South Florida puts it, or "how the school made you feel," as Concordia College says.

But Money.com is just one of the independent sources that suggests cost is, in fact, the most important factor when choosing a college. According to the Education Data Initiative, the average tuition cost for in-state students to attend a public college is $9,750 as of August 2025, while private colleges average out to a daunting $38,421. Attending a public college, therefore, can significantly reduce the need for scholarships or family penny-pinching. While more expensive private schools sometimes help counter the price difference with generous financial aid packages, many students are still forced to rely on loans. President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act has further complicated loan repayment options, which prospective students and their families will want to keep in mind.

With so many factors to consider, it’s important to look beyond just the basic data on a college’s website. Stacker reviewed 2026 rankings from Niche to compile a list of the best public colleges in Florida. Niche’s methodology rates academic quality as the most important, giving it a 40% weight. That factor includes the quality of professors, the college’s acceptance and graduation rates, and how much they spend on research. Next in Niche’s importance is value, with 27.5% weight. That includes the average cost students pay after financial aid is factored in, the average loan amount students take out each year, and metrics about graduates’ earnings and ability to repay student debt.

The analysis also considers other factors, including campus diversity, quality of student life, campus housing and food options, and data about aspects of the surrounding community, including crime rates and rent prices. See the full methodology here.

Read on to see which public colleges in Florida rank the highest.