Best colleges in Texas

Rice University is a private institution in Houston, Texas that has a total undergraduate enrollment of about 7,000 students. The university has a 300-acre campus that abuts the Houston Zoo and Texas Medical Center. Students take classes that follow a semester-based academic calendar, and the university provides merit and need-based scholarships to most students. 

Rice has a rich academic history including the Cao Center for Asian Studies, the Boniuk Institute, and the Ken Kennedy Institute of Information Technology. Students at Rice can explore Houston’s Museum District, walk along Hermann Park, and take advantage of Houston’s METRORail system which is just across from the main campus. 

Many students benefit from Rice’s small classes and 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio. The university also provides students with over 360 undergraduate and graduate degree options in over 60 academic departments. Outside of the classroom, students interested in media and journalism can participate in a variety of student-led organizations like The Rice Thresher, The Campanile, and KTRU Rice Radio. Notable alumni include pilot Howard Hughes, writer Joyce Carol Oates, and American investor John Doerr.

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) is a public research university founded in 1883 in Austin, Texas with an undergraduate enrollment of roughly 50,000. UT Austin is a hub in Texas for academic research and consists of nationally renowned facilities including the LBJ Presidential Library and the Blanton Museum of Art. 

The university is in an urban setting with a campus located just north of the Colorado River in downtown Austin, with classes operating according to a semester-based academic calendar. The current student-faculty ratio at UT is 18:1, among the lowest in the UT system. UT Austin is made up of 18 colleges including the Cockrell School of Engineering, Moody College of Communication, and the Dell Medical School. Prospective applicants should note that the University of Texas at Austin’s tuition and fees for in-state students are about a quarter the cost of those for out-of-state students. 

UT Austin’s infrastructure on campus consists of seven museums, seventeen libraries, and an elaborate underground tunnel system that covers over six miles. In the athletic forum, the Texas Longhorn teams compete in the BIG-12 and enjoy regional football rivalry with Oklahoma, and locally with Texas Tech and Texas A&M. Notable alumni include actor Matthew McConaughey, film director Wes Anderson, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.