What are the best colleges and universities in Texas if you reward schools for making the best use of their limited resources? Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial and human resources to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.
Colleges and universities in Texas deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities reported in late 2021 that almost 75 percent of higher-education professionals at US colleges and universities felt financial constraints prevented their schools from effectively attracting students. Distracted by the size and amenities of larger schools, prospective students tended especially to be overawed by the big research universities.
Texas’s smaller colleges, especially its liberal arts colleges, need effective ways of communicating their value to a world that celebrates “bigger is better” and “you need the best.” Unfortunately, most college ranking companies, such as U.S. News & World Report, define “best” in a way that devalues schools with smaller budgets and fewer students even when these schools do remarkable work in advancing their students’ education. By and large, college rankings penalize schools that serve underserved populations.
Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we decided to construct a new ranking metric that highlights those schools that do more with less. That metric—called the Academic Stewardship metric—takes away both the size and the wealth advantage of schools, and focuses instead on how well schools use the resources available to them to advance the education of their students.
As a metric, Academic Stewardship is defined by a precise mathematical formula, which can be found in our Academic Stewardship white paper. Measuring the Academic Stewardship of Texas’s colleges requires measuring two forms of stewardship: 1) Stewardship of financial resources (using the money they have responsibility without waste) and 2) Stewardship of human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish). Together, these two types of stewardship form what we call Academic Stewardship. If you want to learn more about the factors involved in Academic Stewardship, click the more button below.
Academic Stewardship as so defined is connected to keeping tuition and other costs down, but it should not be confused with affordability or frugality. The schools that this metric ranks as exemplary academic stewards tend to be all over the map when it comes to tuition and other costs. At issue is the influence of schools given the financial and human resources they have on hand. If a school is going to charge more for tuition, then that needs to be reflected in the school having proportionately greater influence.
The benefits of attending a school with strong academic stewardship include:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Graduation
27%
Student body
<1K
Wiley College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$44K
Acceptance
43%
Graduation
68%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/25
Austin College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
72%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1240/26
University of Dallas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
29%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
948/18
Sul Ross State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
51%
Graduation
74%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1205/26
Southwestern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
37%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1080/21
Concordia University Texas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$36K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
44%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1090/22
Houston Christian University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$47K
Acceptance
34%
Graduation
80%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1335/30
Trinity University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
59%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/23
St. Mary's University, Texas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
60%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1115/24
Abilene Christian University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$53K
Acceptance
9%
Graduation
92%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1515/35
Rice University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
23%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
965/18
Texas Southern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
66%
Student body
3K
St. Edward's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
95%
Graduation
47%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1005/19
Midwestern State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
45%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1020/20
Angelo State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
53%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/21
University of Houston–Clear Lake’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
42%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
University of Texas at Tyler’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$60K
Acceptance
53%
Graduation
82%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1350/31
Southern Methodist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
42%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
955/18
Prairie View A&M University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$33K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
58%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/20
University of the Incarnate Word’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
39%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1041/20
Lamar University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
48%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1091/19
Texas Woman's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
53%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
Stephen F. Austin State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
45%
Student body
20K
University of Texas at El Paso’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$50K
Acceptance
57%
Graduation
82%
Student body
18K
Baylor University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Texas offers more than 30 colleges and universities that serve communities of 10,000 students or more. The largest school in the bunch (and in the nation), Texas A&M University in College Station serves more than 65,000 students. The University of Texas at Austin is the next largest, serving about 45,000 students - but it too has a big claim to fame, as the wealthiest public university in the United States. Texas’s private colleges and universities, including Baylor University and Southern Methodist University, are also impressive in size and scope. The majority of these schools have religious affiliations and offer degrees in a variety fields, such as nursing, religious studies, criminal justice, business, and education.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
For students who prefer a more intimate educational environment, Texas offers a long list of smaller public and private colleges and universities, such as Abilene Christian University and University of Texas of the Permian Basin. Additionally, Texas has generous loan forgiveness programs for qualifying nurses, physicians, teachers, legal aid attorneys, and lawyers who work in the Texas Attorney General’s office.
Texas is known for doing things big. Big cities, big open spaces and, of course, big fun. Whether you’re hitting up the live music scene in Austin, catching a Cowboys game in Dallas, or strolling down the River Walk in San Antonio, you’re sure to have a good time. And, with more than 150 higher education institutes, it’s safe to say The Lone Star State is big on education too.
If you’re looking to earn your degree in the state of Texas, you’ll have plenty of higher learning institutes to choose from.