University of South Florida

About University of South Florida

The University of South Florida (USF) is a public research university with its main campus located in Tampa, Florida, and other campuses in St. Petersburg and Sarasota. It is one of 12 members of the State University System of Florida. USF is home to 14 colleges, offering more than 240 undergraduate, graduate, specialist, and doctoral-level degree programs. USF is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.[8][9][10] USF is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and is designated by the Florida Board of Governors as one of three Preeminent State Research Universities.

Founded in 1956, USF is the fourth largest university in Florida by enrollment, with 49,766 students from over 145 countries, all 50 states, all five U.S. Territories, and the District of Columbia as of the 2022–2023 academic year

Why Should Study at University of South Florida?

University of South Florida's ranking in the 2024 edition of Best Colleges is National Universities, #89.Florida's flagship public university tops the rankings for the best college in the state. The University of Florida boasts a 96.7% retention rate. The rating of USF is #46 in United State. USF offers superb academics, world-class interdisciplinary research, distinguished faculty, a diverse student body, athletics and year-round sunshine. It's no wonder students come to USF from every state, every U.S. territory and more than 150 countries around the world. USF is at the forefront of cutting-edge research in medicine, science, engineering and technology, and ranks in the top 25 nationally among public universities for total research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation. USF is the first public university in Florida to be invited to join the AAU in nearly 40 years and is now one of only two institutions from the State University System of Florida to serve as an AAU member.

Campus

USF was previously identified as a university system from 1965 until 2020, but is now chartered as one university geographically distributed across three campus locations: Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee. Before being consolidated into one university geographically distributed, the University of South Florida System included three member institutions: USF Tampa (which was the flagship campus), USF St. Petersburg, and USF Sarasota-Manatee. Each institution was separately accredited, had a distinct mission, and its own strategic plans. The USF System once included three other member institutions: one in Fort Myers, one in Lakeland, and a second Sarasota campus. The Sarasota institution was originally a private college called New College which sold itself to USF in 1975 to pay off debt, and became New College of the University of South Florida. It shared a campus with USF Sarasota-Manatee, which opened in 1975, but was accredited differently as USFSM was considered a branch campus rather than a member institution at the time. New College became the independent New College of Florida in 2001, but continued to share a campus with USFSM until a new one was built for USFSM in 2006.

USF Lakeland opened in 1988 and split off from the USF System in 2012 to become the independent Florida Polytechnic University. Tampa campus is established in 1956, the USF Tampa campus serves more than 41,000 students. The institution houses 14 colleges and is the doctoral granting campus of USF. The University of South Florida Office of Graduate Studies is based on the Tampa campus and serves as the center of leadership for graduate education at the University of South Florida.

The Tampa campus is located in North Tampa east of the University neighborhood, about seven miles north of downtown. It is by far the largest of the three campuses, spanning 1,562 acres. The campus is divided into different districts, with most housing located in the northeast, athletics and recreation in the east and southeast, research in the south and southwest, USF Health in the west, northwest and north, and undergraduate classes and student services in central campus. Each college is divided into its own section within the district, for example with fine and performing arts in the north and northwest parts of the district, social sciences in the east, natural sciences and engineering in the south, and education and business in the southeast.

The campus is known for having over 19,000 trees, and has been named a Tree Campus USA by the Arbor Day Foundation every year since 2011. In honor of this, nearly all streets on campus are named after trees, as are six of the 14 dorms. The tree motif is also seen on USF's ceremonial mace, which has a gold pinecone on the top to symbolize both growth and the fact that the first trees to be planted on the campus were pine. These pine trees are still around today, in the field next to the main south entrance to the campus on LeRoy Collins Boulevard between Fowler Avenue and Alumni Drive. It is located next to Albert Whitted Airport and less than a mile from the Salvador Dalí Museum and Al Lang Stadium. USFSP was a satellite campus from 1965 until 2006, when it was accredited as a separate entity from the USF Tampa campus within the University of South Florida System by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. USFSP serves approximately 4,500 students per year and offers 33 undergraduate and graduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and education. Sarasota-Manatee campus is a New College became independent of the USF system in 2001 and USFSM took its place as a member institution in the USF system, but USFSM and New College continued to share a campus until a new campus was completed for USFSM across the street in 2006.[69] Nearly 2,000 students take classes at USFSM each year. The campus offers 43 academic programs and certificates in arts and sciences, business, education, and hospitality and technology leadership.