Florida universities: Where academic excellence meets athletic prowess

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Florida recently overtook New York as the nation's third-largest state.

With a booming population of 22 million and growing, the Sunshine State is making considerable investments in its public institutions of higher learning, while private universities are also seeing surging enrollment.

Here is a look at some of the top universities in Florida based on enrollment rates.

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Long famous for its legendary football program, the University of Florida now boasts an impressive academic record, and entrance is extremely competitive, with an acceptance rate of just 23%.

Located in northern Florida in Gainesville, it is the flagship school of the State University System of Florida. As the fifth-largest university in the country, it features over 57,000 students studying at 16 academic colleges.

Additionally, it offers numerous graduate programs, including medicine, pharmacy, engineering, law, business administration and dentistry.

Gainesville, University of Florida, campus entrance with students. (Photo by: Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Founded in 1851, Florida State University is located in Florida's capital, Tallahassee.

Comprised of 16 colleges, it features a student body of over 45,000 hailing from all 50 states and 130 countries. It has an annual budget of $2.2 billion, and its athletics programs have won 20 NCAA Division I national championships. It currently offers 104 baccalaureate programs, 112 master's degree programs, and 70 doctoral programs.

The University of Miami is a private research university, located in the Coral Gables neighborhood of Miami.

The university enrollment stands at nearly