Public colleges and universities account for almost 75 percent of all undergraduate students in the U.S. The best public colleges in Texas provide broad access to reputable degree programs, affordable tuition, and sprawling educational communities.
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.
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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.
Public and private colleges and universities operate under different business models — one is a private company with private funding; the other is owned by the state and receives both state and federal funding to operate. If you’re weighing the pros and cons of private vs. public college, consider that many public colleges provide diverse course offerings, influential professors, and an excellent return on your investment.
Public colleges are schools that receive most of their funding from tax revenues. As a result, the cost of a four-year degree at a public university is often lower than the equivalent cost at a private college — especially for students attending a public school in their home state. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the average annual cost (tuition, fees, room and board for full-time students) at a four-year public university was slightly over $20,000. In contrast, private universities cost, on average, nearly $43,000 annually.
This list is composed entirely of public colleges and universities that offer four-year undergraduate degrees. We’ve identified 36 public universities in Texas. The list below of the 15 best public universities in the state satisfies the following four conditions:
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
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.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
32%
Graduation
88%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1355/30
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University of Texas at Austin’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
62%
Student body
37K
Median SAT/ACT
1225/24
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University of Houston’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
69%
Student body
26K
Median SAT/ACT
1350/29
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University of Texas at Dallas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
83%
Student body
59K
Median SAT/ACT
1275/28
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Texas A&M University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
63%
Student body
35K
Median SAT/ACT
1165/24
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Texas Tech University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
57%
Student body
35K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
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University of North Texas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
92%
Graduation
58%
Student body
19K
Median SAT/ACT
1065/21
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Sam Houston State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
52%
Student body
40K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/23
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University of Texas at Arlington’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
59%
Graduation
46%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1005/18
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Texas A&M International University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
44%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/19
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Midwestern State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
44%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/20
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West Texas A&M University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
55%
Student body
32K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/22
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Texas State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$11K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
54%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1085/21
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Stephen F. Austin State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
47%
Student body
27K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/19
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University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
58%
Graduation
46%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1045/20
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Tarleton State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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