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Trends by state

Trends by state

Florida

65 colleges on the site: 12 public, 40 private nonprofit, 13 for-profit. Their undergraduates grew 8% in total since fall 2014, to 402,898 today (45 of 65 Florida colleges in the panel).

Explore Florida's colleges

How Florida's colleges changed

The median Florida college, fall 2014 to fall 2024, against the national median (dashed) over the same .

Undergraduates

+1%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

+93%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Acceptance rate

−0.6 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

No point for fall 2016: fewer than 90% of this state's colleges reported.

Average total cost

-6%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Public and private

State stories are often public-system stories: a state's publics shrinking while its privates hold, or the reverse.

Public

11 colleges
Undergrads
+1%
Applicants
+95%
Acceptance rate
−7.3 pts
Average cost
-17%

Private nonprofit

30 colleges
Undergrads
+4%
Applicants
+93%
Acceptance rate
+0.9 pts
Average cost
-2%

Where Florida's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. Florida (in-state)71%
  2. NY3%
  3. NJ2%
  4. GA2%
  5. PA2%
  6. TX2%
  7. IL1%
  8. MA1%

Public:

9% → 12% (12 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

36% → 39% (40 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
16,591
Outflow
16,013
Net
+578

Florida's colleges enroll 1.0 first-years from other states for every Florida resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. The University of Tampa12%
  2. University of Miami9%
  3. University of Florida9%
  4. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach7%
  5. Florida State University7%

One fall, over campus-based colleges only: not that fall, not for-profit, and not a campus that merged or split.

Biggest movers in Florida

The same as the national lists, restricted to Florida's colleges.

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +94.2% (26 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Edward Waters University+389.7%2,100 → 10,283
  2. 2Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University+353.6%5,017 → 22,756
  3. 3Nova Southeastern University+307.1%4,364 → 17,765
  4. 4Jacksonville University+178.5%2,939 → 8,184
  5. 5Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach+174.8%4,087 → 11,232
  6. 6University of South Florida+174.4%24,988 → 68,576
  7. 7Florida State University+158.6%30,266 → 78,272
  8. 8University of Florida+156.6%28,662 → 73,557
  9. 9The University of Tampa+120.6%17,208 → 37,954
  10. 10Florida Atlantic University+110.9%14,944 → 31,511

Sources:IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Grew the most

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: +0.9% (30 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Southeastern University+63.4%2,946 → 4,813
  2. 2Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Daytona Beach+58.7%4,954 → 7,860
  3. 3Nova Southeastern University+58.0%4,582 → 7,240
  4. 4The University of Tampa+55.2%6,811 → 10,572
  5. 5Lynn University+49.6%1,911 → 2,859
  6. 6Ringling College of Art and Design+36.7%1,216 → 1,662
  7. 7Ave Maria University+27.4%1,019 → 1,298
  8. 8University of South Florida+22.9%30,279 → 37,207
  9. 9University of Miami+19.3%10,828 → 12,913
  10. 10University of Central Florida+13.1%52,280 → 59,146

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

(in 2023–24 dollars), 2013–14 to 2023–24

Median college: −7.5% (32 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Bethune-Cookman University−40.3%$21,806 → $13,029
  2. 2Stetson University−34.9%$33,598 → $21,871
  3. 3Florida Atlantic University−25.1%$23,751 → $17,783
  4. 4Barry University−23.1%$34,737 → $26,720
  5. 5University of Central Florida−21.4%$22,444 → $17,649
  6. 6Florida State University−19.4%$24,154 → $19,462
  7. 7Florida International University−19.2%$22,394 → $18,105
  8. 8University of West Florida−17.0%$19,987 → $16,589
  9. 9University of Florida−16.0%$19,930 → $16,736
  10. 10University of North Florida−14.0%$19,939 → $17,141

Sources:IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2013 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 10 and how it's ranked

Public research universities

Florida's public R1 and R2 universities (Carnegie 2025), with their undergraduate change over the same window. No classification in the data means "flagship," so this is simply the state's public research universities.

How this was measured

  • Which colleges. Colleges with 300 or more undergraduates in both fall 2014 and fall 2024: 45 of 65 Florida colleges. It's a , so colleges entering or leaving the data don't look like change.
  • Average total cost is an academic-year figure, one year behind fall: 2013–14 to 2023–24, after inflation.
  • Out-of-state shares are collected in even-numbered falls only; odd years are gaps, not zeros.
  • Totals and medians both appear because they can diverge: a state's total can fall more (or less) than its median college when its biggest colleges move differently.
  • No policy attribution. This page shows what changed, not why; a state's mix of public, private, and for-profit colleges, and its system policies, aren't broken out as causes.
  • First-years crossing state lines is a single snapshot, fall 2024, over campus-based colleges only: colleges that fall, for-profit colleges, and campuses that merged or split are left out. It's the newest fall the site's per-college home-state tables cover, not this page's ten-year window.

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (part C, residence of first-time students), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)