Florida’s Best Liberal Arts Colleges & Universities of 2021

Colleges and Universities in Florida

Coming in under the national tuition average at $6,360, Florida’s colleges and universities make earning your degree affordable. Prospective students can choose from 40 public and 50 private institutions that award associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in fields like anthropology, nursing, law, religious studies, and earth sciences. With over 165,000 students across eight campuses and 21 outreach centers, Miami Dade College is the largest public college in the state with a tuition of $3,000.

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Students seeking a religious school can choose from 21 colleges and universities that are grounded in Judeo-Christian, Catholic, Seventh-day Adventist, and Christian principals. Ranked as the top two schools, the University of Florida (UF) and Florida State University (FSU) both have large student populations, with just over 45,000 at UF and just under 39,000 as FSU. Both are also affordable, with tuition at $6,000 and $7,000, respectively.

At $50,000, the University of Miami is the most expensive private college in the state and has graduated influential people, such as Gene Roddenberry, Sylvester Stallone, and Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Florida also offers its nursing students up to $4,000 in loan forgiveness through their Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Program.

Coastal cities, sandy beaches, orange groves, and vibrant flowers — it’s no wonder Florida is called The Sunshine State. Home to the famous Everglades National Park and Disney World, Florida also boasts 90 higher education institutes.

With so many options and in such a beautiful setting, Florida has a lot to offer higher education students. Check out Florida’s best degree programs and top career paths.

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Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges

How do we determine Florida's best colleges and universities?

The best colleges pound for pound!

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call Concentrated Influence. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.

Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.

If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

Find out more about our ranking methodology here.

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10 Best Liberal Arts Colleges & Universities in Florida

A liberal arts college is a school that puts a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. We’ve identified 59 liberal arts universities in Florida. The list below of the 25 best liberal arts schools in the state satisfies the following three conditions:

1. It must be a non-profit institution.
2. It must be fully accredited.
3. Its graduation rate must be above 50%.

1. 

   #1

   New College of Florida

   #1262 institution's overall influence

   #846 overall school desirability

   Tuition + fees

   $7K

   Acceptance

   70%

   Graduation

   65%

   Student body

   <1K

   Median SAT/ACT

   1270/28

   Sarasota, FL

   View profile
2. 

   #2

   Eckerd College

   #1548 institution's overall influence

   #357 overall school desirability

   Tuition + fees

   $46K

   Acceptance

   69%

   Graduation

   70%

   Student body

   2K

   Median SAT/ACT

   1185/26

   Saint Petersburg, FL

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   What is Eckerd College known for?

   Most Influential Alumni

   • Bob Gualtieri
3. 

   #3

   Ave Maria University

   #2575 institution's overall influence

   #1037 overall school desirability

   Tuition + fees

   $22K

   Acceptance

   92%

   Graduation

   55%

   Student body

   1K

   Median SAT/ACT

   1135/24

   Ave Maria, FL

   View profile
4. 

   #4

   Rollins College

   #919 institution's overall influence

   #472 overall school desirability

   Tuition + fees

   $52K

   Acceptance

   61%

   Graduation

   75%

   Student body

   4K

   Winter Park, FL

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   What is Rollins College known for?

   Rollins College's faculty and alumni have been influential in:

   • Business
   • Literature
   • Education
   • Chemistry
   • History
   • Economics
   • Communications
   • Political Science
   • Medical
   • Computer Science

   Most Influential Alumni

   • Harry C. Goode Jr.
   • Joe Justice
   • John Mark Cox Jr.
   • Stina Lykke Borg
   • Mike Nicolette
5. 

   #5

   Stetson University

   #833 institution's overall influence

   #797 overall school desirability

   Tuition + fees

   $48K

   Acceptance

   81%

   Graduation

   62%

   Student body

   4K

   DeLand, FL

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   What is Stetson University known for?

   Stetson University's faculty and alumni have been influential in:

   • Law
   • Business
   • Education
   • Political Science
   • History
   • Philosophy
   • Literature
   • Medical
   • Religious Studies
   • Communications

   Most Influential Alumni

   • Jan Więckowski
   • Armands Melnbārdis
   • Sarah Sagerer
   • Michael McGrath
   • Cathy Burnham Martin
   • Olav Gutting
6. 

   #6

   Flagler College

   #3812 institution's overall influence

   Tuition + fees

   $20K

   Acceptance

   56%

   Graduation

   55%

   Student body

   3K

   Saint Augustine, FL

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   What is Flagler College known for?

   Most Influential Alumni

   • Matthías Orri Sigurðarson
7. 

   #7

   Florida Southern College

   #1721 institution's overall influence

   #1434 overall school desirability

   Tuition + fees

   $38K

   Acceptance

   50%

   Graduation

   63%

   Student body

   3K

   Median SAT/ACT

   1192/26

   Lakeland, FL

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   What is Florida Southern College known for?

   Most Influential Alumni

   • Harry C. Goode Jr.
8. 

   #8

   Everglades University

   #7942 institution's overall influence

   Tuition + fees

   $18K

   Acceptance

   75%

   Graduation

   51%

   Student body

   2K

   Boca Raton, FL

   View profile
9. 

   #9

   Eastern Florida State College

   #5809 institution's overall influence

   Tuition + fees

   $2K

   Student body

   11K

   Cocoa, FL

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   What is Eastern Florida State College known for?

   Eastern Florida State College's faculty and alumni have been influential in:

   • Education
   • Medical
   • Criminal Justice
   • Engineering
   • Computer Science
   • Nursing
   • Communications
   • Social Work

   Most Influential Alumni

   • Khadija Shaw
   • Tom Goodson
   • Carlos Reyes
   • Don Wilson
10. 

    #10

    University of South Florida Sarasota–Manatee

    #9461 institution's overall influence

    #103 overall school desirability

    Tuition + fees

    $6K

    Acceptance

    24%

    Student body

    2K

    Median SAT/ACT

    1225/27

    Sarasota, FL

    View profile

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