Best Grad Schools In Texas 2026

Badge for BEST IN TEXAS GRADUATE SCHOOLS

By Dr. James Barham
Reviewed By Jenn Finley

Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Key Takeaways

The majority of the best grad schools in Texas are located in Fort Worth, San Antonio, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Houston, Dallas, and Austin.
Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin are some of world’s most prominent universities with a rolling admission of over 40,000 students yearly. These two schools always top the national rankings.
Texas is not only home to a few of the biggest schools in the US but also several small liberal arts colleges and well-known private colleges and universities that offer a vast selection of master’s and doctoral degrees.

Table of Contents

2025 Ranking Update

Our Influence Ranking Engine™ leverages machine learning to track the real-world influence of colleges and universities over time. Below you’ll see which schools gained or lost ground for the 2025 school year.

The University of Texas at Austin maintains the top spot in our 2025 ranking of the best grad schools in Texas. While Texas A&M University and Rice University swapped places for the number 2 and 3 positions, as did the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas in the number 8 and 9 positions, all other schools remained unchanged.

Texas’ Pride: The Country’s Top Grad Schools

Texas is the second largest state, which means bigger or greater options for advanced education. Texas is home to the first Space Center, Smithsonian-worthy institutions, and more airports than any other state in America. Prospective students for graduate degrees can find a rare combination of protected history and urban innovation in the Lone Star state.

Cost of Higher Education in Texas

A public university in Texas charges in-state students an average of $8,000 for tuition and other fees. Nearly twice as much is charged to out-of-state students as it is to in-state students. Remember that this does not include other college costs, such as housing, food, and transportation.

At a Texas public institution, the average cost for in-state students, including housing and food, is $18,000. If you decide to study at a private institution, you should expect to spend at least $48,000 yearly.

Since location affects costs like rent, food, and gas, it also helps to calculate the overall cost of college. Certain locations, like Dallas, have a higher cost of living than others. Cities like Amarillo and Brownsville, as well as more remote areas, are among Texas’s least expensive neighborhoods.

The cheapest graduate schools in Texas include:

Texas Southern University ($7,660)
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley($9,541)
University of Texas at El Paso ($9,544)
Lamar University ($10,586)
Stephen F. Austin State University ($10,600)
Sam Houston State University ($10,756)
The University of Texas at San Antonio ($10,966)
Prairie View A&M University ($11,299)
Texas State University ($11,851)
Texas Tech University ($11,852)
The University of Texas at Arlington ($11,728)
University of Houston ($11,870)
University of North Texas ($11,994)
The University of Texas at Dallas ($14,564)

If you’re an out-of-state student, expect to pay twice the in-state tuition.

The most expensive graduate schools in Texas include:

Abilene Christian University ($40,500)
Baylor University ($51,738)
Texas Christian University ($53,980)
Rice University ($54,960)
Southern Methodist University ($61,980)

How to Lower the Cost of Graduate Programs in Texas

Become a Resident of the State

If you’re an out-of-state student, working on your residency status is important. Texas requires you to spend a full year in the state before you are regarded as a resident.

Unfortunately, being in the state for one year as a college student in a dorm room on campus does not count. What you can do is rent an apartment instead of living on campus. It’s also important to have the right paper trails, including a driver’s license in the state, registering to vote, and paying taxes.

Talk to the Financial Aid Office

Contact the financial assistance office if you have your eye on a specific college but are concerned about the expense of attending as an out-of-state student. Getting financial aid, scholarships, and grants can help cut the cost of attending college.

Attend a Public College or University

Enrolling in a public college or university is the way to go if you really want to save money. The Texas government funds public colleges, which reduces a student’s tuition and fees significantly. Public universities have fewer requirements and more lenient admissions than private institutions.

Transfer Credits

Students can lower their overall college expenses by transferring credits from previous education. To be able to transfer credits, make sure that your last degree is from an accredited institution.

How do we determine Texas's best grad schools?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! 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 in their fields of study.

Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.

There are 45 doctorate-granting graduate schools in Texas. Our ranking of the best graduate schools in the Texas is composed of both private and public schools. To be included, schools must be fully accredited non-profit institutions, and must offer doctoral degrees and a broad array of graduate degrees.