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2 Houston universities excel on 2026 list of best U.S. colleges

Rice University and the University of Houston are in the spotlight again.

Rice University

Two top tier Houston universities were just inducted into a new "hall of fame" list of the best colleges in the U.S. for 2026.

Rice University and the University of Houston were both praised in education services company The Princeton Review's "The Best 391 Colleges: 2026 Edition."

Released August 12, the comprehensive guide annually ranks the best universities across 50 categories based on a survey of 170,000 current college students. Survey questions covered topics such as a school's academics and administration, student quality of life, politics, campus life, city/town life, extracurricular opportunities, and social environment.

The Princeton Review did not numerically rank the schools overall, but it does report the top 25 schools (out of the total 391) for each of the 50 different categories. The report also clarifies that while schools did not pay to be included in the guide, they could pay for a "featured" designation. Neither Houston university paid to be featured on the list.

Rice University, Houston's most prestigious private institution, appeared in the overall 391 best colleges list, and it also appeared in the regional "Best Southwest" list, the "Best Value Colleges" list, and the "Colleges That Create Futures" list. Rice's overall quality and its academic integrity are what students say are its greatest strengths. Students are additionally encouraged to think creatively (and even unconventionally) about how to approach course assignments.

"There's also an outside-the-box thinking when it comes to assessments, like 'the option to make a 30 minute scientific podcast instead of taking the final,' explains one sophomore," the school's profile says. "This isn't unusual for first-years either; one notes that 'instead of doing a bunch of writing and essays, I was tasked with creating...a TED Talk, which really lit a creative flame in me.'"

Rice students can brag about attending a school with the seventh-best college newspaper, and the 10th best college dorms and quality of life out of all colleges nationwide. The university's financial aid is also the ninth best in the country.

Here's how Rice fared in other Princeton Review rankings:

No. 14 – Top 50 Best Value Private Colleges
No. 14 – Lots of Race/Class Interaction
No. 17 – Best College Radio Station
No. 18 – Top 20 Best Value Private Colleges without Financial Aid
No. 19 – Best Science Lab Facilities
No. 23 – Best-Run Colleges
No. 25 – Students Study the Most

Rice has recently earned praise in a separate 2026 ranking of the best universities in the world, and its MBA program scored highly in The Princeton Review's 2025 best business schools list.

University of Houston also appeared in The Princeton Review's "Best Value Colleges," "Best Southwest," "Green Colleges," and "Colleges That Create Futures" lists. Students at this university also benefit from having the No. 1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation.

"Whether you're in or out-of-state, students consider their school to be 'not very expensive for the quality of education you're getting,' and the constant improvements help 'you feel like your degree is appreciating in value over time along with the school itself," the university's profile says.

Here's how University of Houston performed in other rankings:

No. 20 – Students Love Their School Teams
No. 21 – Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch (this list measured schools based on "the use of hard liquor" as reported by student surveys)
No. 22 – Cancel the Keg (this list measured "how widely beer is used" at schools based on student survey results)
No. 22 – Pot's Not Hot (this list ranked colleges with the "least marijuana usage based on ratings from real students about the popularity of marijuana on campus")
No. 25 – Most Politically Moderate Students
No. 42 – Top 50 Best Value Public Colleges

Unfortunately, UH ranked No. 11 in The Princeton Review's ranking of schools where financial aid is "not so great." However, there is plenty else to appreciate about this high performing university.

Other Texas universities that were included in The Princeton Review's guide are:

University of Texas at Austin
Southwestern University in Georgetown
Texas State University in San Marcos
Trinity University in San Antonio
Texas A&M University in College Station
Angelo State University in San Angelo
Baylor University in Waco
Texas Christian University in Fort Worth
Southern Methodist University in Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson
University of Dallas in Irving
Austin College in Sherman

universities colleges rankings innovation houston rice university university of houston

Jobs report

Texas clocks in as No. 7 best state to find a job, new report says

Photo by The Jopwell Collection on Unsplash

It's easier to find a job in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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