Small colleges in Texas are a great option for students interested in a more intimate campus experience, more personal attention from excellent professors, and more immediate access to support services. Whether the focus is on the technical or on the liberal arts, small colleges give you the chance to pursue a well-rounded education while working closely with classmates and professors in a dynamic community atmosphere.
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.
The following list of the best small colleges and universities in Texas is composed mainly of four-year undergraduate schools (though a handful also offer graduate programs). There are 39 small colleges in Texas, 23 of which meet our criteria. The list below of the 15 best small colleges 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
$45K
Acceptance
54%
Graduation
69%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1245/27
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University of Dallas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
72%
Graduation
47%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1100/21
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Houston Baptist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$34K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
59%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/23
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St. Mary's University, Texas’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$46K
Acceptance
34%
Graduation
79%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1370/30
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Trinity University ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
66%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/23
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University of St. Thomas ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$45K
Acceptance
49%
Graduation
73%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1230/26
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Southwestern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
55%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1056/20
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Hardin–Simmons University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
56%
Graduation
57%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1200/25
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LeTourneau University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$29K
Acceptance
49%
Graduation
40%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/21
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Howard Payne University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
63%
Graduation
66%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1122/24
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Abilene Christian University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$49K
Acceptance
91%
Graduation
67%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1152/25
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St. Edward's University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
49%
Graduation
71%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/26
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Austin College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
99%
Graduation
56%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1140/23
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Dallas Baptist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$23K
Acceptance
62%
Graduation
43%
Student body
<1K
Median SAT/ACT
985/19
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Southwestern Adventist University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$21K
Acceptance
89%
Graduation
49%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1010/19
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Southwestern Assemblies of God University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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