Here are the most affordable colleges and universities in Texas. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you, at a price you can afford.
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 most affordable colleges and universities in Texas is composed entirely of schools offering four-year undergraduate degree programs. There are 44 colleges and universities in Texas that offer tuition under $16,000/year; 32 of those schools are below $10,000/year. The list below of the top 30 most affordable colleges universities in the state satisfies the following three 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
$3K
Graduation
28%
Student body
2K
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Brazosport College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
22%
Student body
7K
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Tyler Junior College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Graduation
24%
Student body
25K
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South Texas College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$4K
Graduation
23%
Student body
3K
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Midland College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$5K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
41%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1036/19
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University of Texas Permian Basin’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
93%
Graduation
30%
Student body
11K
Median SAT/ACT
1000/18
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University of Houston–Downtown’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$7K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
19%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1009/18
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University of Houston–Victoria’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
30%
Student body
2K
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Sul Ross State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
52%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/21
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University of Houston–Clear Lake’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
$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:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
96%
Graduation
38%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1060/21
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Texas A&M University–Texarkana’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
43%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1025/20
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Angelo State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$8K
Acceptance
94%
Graduation
48%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1040/19
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Texas Woman's 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
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
$9K
Student body
1K
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Amberton University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
100%
Graduation
44%
Student body
20K
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University of Texas at El Paso’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
84%
Graduation
46%
Student body
28K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/22
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University of Texas at San Antonio’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
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
92%
Graduation
43%
Student body
8K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
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University of Texas at Tyler’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
83%
Graduation
37%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/20
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Lamar University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$9K
Acceptance
66%
Graduation
19%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
920/16
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Texas Southern University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$10K
Acceptance
60%
Graduation
43%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
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Texas A&M University–Commerce’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
$10K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
45%
Student body
6K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/19
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Texas A&M University–Kingsville’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
$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
$10K
Acceptance
90%
Graduation
37%
Student body
10K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/21
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Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
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