With early application season in full swing, a local university is racking up accolades on a new list of the 10 best Texas colleges for 2027.
Rice University topped the list as the No. 1 best university in Texas in WalletHub's annual "College & University Rankings" report, showing Houston students don't have to travel out of state to earn a top-notch degree.
WalletHub analyzed 738 colleges and universities in the U.S. using 30 relevant metrics, including factors like student-faculty ratios, graduation rates, and many more. Universities were ranked nationally, regionally, and across seven key dimensions: student selectivity; cost and financing; faculty resources; campus safety; campus experience; educational outcomes; and career outcomes.
Rice also ranked No. 2 in the regional comparison of best universities in the south, and appeared No. 11 nationwide.
Across the seven main categories, the university performed best for its faculty resources (No. 4), education outcomes (No. 11), and student selectivity (No. 16), and earned top-100 rankings for its career outcomes (No. 28) and campus experience (No. 58).
Rice only lagged behind in the national rankings for campus safety (No. 632) and cost and financing (No. 666), but neither category swayed the university's top-performing overall position.
Meanwhile, the University of Houston ranked 75th regionally and 339th nationally. UH's cost and financing rank among the top 200 nationally, landing 177th, and it ranked 284th for its campus safety.
This is how the report ranked UH in the five remaining categories out of all 738 schools:
- No. 306 – Career outcomes
- No. 324 – Student selectivity
- No. 343 – Education outcomes
- No. 383 – Campus experience
- No. 715 – Faculty resources
Four more local schools ranked among the best universities in the South: Houston Christian University (No. 204), Prairie View A&M University (No. 245), University of Houston-Downtown (No. 251), and Texas Southern University (No. 254).
The Houston-area universities, including their
graduate and
online programs, have earned heaps of
national and
worldwide praise this year from prestigious educational reviewing authorities
U.S. News & World Report and
The Princeton Review. Rice University also topped Niche's list of the
best Texas universities for 2027.
These are WalletHub's top 10 best colleges and universities in Texas for 2027:
- No. 1 – Rice University
- No. 2 – Trinity University
- No. 3 – The University of Texas at Austin
- No. 4 – Texas A&M University-College Station
- No. 5 – Southwestern University
- No. 6 – University of Dallas
- No. 7 – Austin College
- No. 8 – Texas Christian University
- No. 9 – LeTourneau University
- No. 10 – The University of Texas at Dallas
