Private colleges, unlike large public institutions, can be a great option for students wanting a more intimate campus experience, more personal attention from excellent professors, and more immediate access to support services. Here is our list of the best private colleges 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.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
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.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models — one is a private company with private funding; the other is owned by the state and receives both state and federal funding to operate. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of private vs. public college, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.
Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a four-year degree at a public university is often lower than the equivalent cost at a private college — especially for students attending a public school in their home state. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a four-year public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually.
This list is composed entirely of private colleges and universities that offer four-year undergraduate degrees. We’ve identified 33 private universities in Florida. The list below of the 20 best private universities in the state satisfies the following three conditions:
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.
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
33%
Graduation
83%
Student body
15K
Median SAT/ACT
1355/30
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University of Miami’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
53%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1135/24
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Ave Maria University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$48K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
65%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/26
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Eckerd College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
60%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1255/27
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Florida Institute of Technology’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$54K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
81%
Student body
3K
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Rollins College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
35%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
990/19
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St. Thomas University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
62%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1175/24
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Nova Southeastern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
64%
Student body
4K
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Stetson University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$20K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
58%
Student body
3K
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Flagler College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
50%
Graduation
68%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1192/26
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Florida Southern College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
51%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1035/21
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Jacksonville University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
57%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1090/23
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Palm Beach Atlantic University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$40K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
59%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1075/23
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Lynn University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
58%
Student body
2K
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Everglades University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$28K
Acceptance
43%
Graduation
48%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/21
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Southeastern University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
60%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1175/25
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University of Tampa’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$25K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
50%
Student body
10K
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Saint Leo University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Acceptance
97%
Graduation
71%
Student body
29K
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Keiser University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
45%
Graduation
62%
Student body
<1K
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Beacon College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
62%
Student body
7K
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Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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