Tops in Texas

How Texas schools stack up on new rankings of best U.S. colleges

Two publications recently put out roundups of top U.S. colleges, and Houston’s Rice University has a lot to brag about. According to Forbes’ America’s Top Colleges and Money’s Best Colleges for Your Money, Rice is the top ranked college in Texas.

The top five Texas schools according to Forbes are Rice, University of Texas at Austin, Southern Methodist University, Trinity University and Texas A&M University. Money’s top five Texas schools are Rice, Texas A&M, UT Austin, Texas Tech and Texas Woman’s University.

For our breakdown, we listed only the top five Texas schools from each list and included its ranking on the other. Here is a complete list of Texas schools on the Forbes roundup. Money also has a filter to sort by state if you want to see where your favorite Texas school landed.

Rice University
Forbes ranking: No. 32 nationally and first in Texas
Money ranking: No. 20 nationally and first in Texas

University of Texas at Austin
Forbes ranking: No. 76 nationally and second in Texas
Money ranking: No. 53 nationally and third in Texas

Texas A&M University
Forbes ranking: No. 137 nationally and fifth in Texas
Money ranking: No. 24 nationally and second in Texas

Southern Methodist University
Forbes ranking: No. 101 nationally and third in Texas
Money ranking: No. 257 nationally and eighth in Texas

Trinity University
Forbes ranking: No. 132 nationally and fourth in Texas
Money ranking: No. 409 nationally and 16th in Texas

Texas Woman’s University
Forbes ranking: No. 573 nationally and 19th in Texas
Money ranking: No. 169 nationally and fifth in Texas

Texas Tech University
Forbes ranking: No. 402 nationally and 13th in Texas
Money ranking: No. 154 nationally and fourth in Texas

To come up with the rankings, Forbes looked at 650 colleges and universities’ return on investment by analyzing 12 factors in five categories, including student satisfaction, academic success, amount of student debt, graduation rate and alumni career success.

For its list, Money ranked the nation’s 1,500 four-year colleges by screening those with below-average graduation rates and ranking the remaining 665 universities on 17 factors in three categories: educational quality, affordability and alumni earnings (provided by PayScale.com).

However, to show how rankings can differ wildly, the 2014 report from the Center for World University Rankings claims the University of Texas at Austin as tops in Texas — as well as the No. 22 institution in the country and No. 29 in the world.

Rounding out the top five in Texas are the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (which ranks No. 66 in the world and 43 nationally), University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (No. 104 in the world and 55 nationally), Texas A&M (No. 105 in the world and 56 nationally), and Rice University (No. 108 in the world and 58 nationally).

SMU ranks among the top five schools in Texas according to a new list of the best U.S. colleges by Forbes.

SMU Facebook

SMU ranks among the top five schools in Texas according to a new list of the best U.S. colleges by Forbes.

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Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates pilfer nearly $2B worth of Texas packages, study shows

Porch Pirate Person in Glasses Steals Packages

Getty Images

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’Tis the season for porch pirates. If past trends are an indicator, the Grinch will swipe close to $2 billion worth of packages delivered to Texas households this year, with many of those thefts happening ahead of the holiday season.

An analysis of FBI and survey data by ecommerce marketing company Omnisend shows porch pirates stole more than $1.8 billion worth of packages from Texans’ porches last year. Porch pirates hit nearly one-third of the state’s households in 2024, according to the analysis.

Omnisend’s analysis reveals these statistics about porch piracy in Texas:

30.1 million residential package thefts in 2024.
An average household loss of $169 per year.
An annual average of 2.9 package thefts per household.

“Most stolen items are cheap on their own, but add them up, and retailers and consumers are facing an enormous bill,” says Omnisend.

Another data analysis, this one from The Action Network sports betting platform, unwraps different figures regarding porch piracy in Texas.

The platform’s 2025 Porch Pirate Index ranks Texas as the state with the highest volume of residential thefts, based on 2023-24 FBI data.

Researchers at The Action Network uncovered 26,293 reports of personal property thefts at Texas residences during that period. The network’s survey data indicates 5 percent of Texas residents had a package stolen in the three months before the pre-holiday survey.

The Porch Pirate Index calculates a 25.8 percent risk of a Texas household being victimized by porch pirates, putting it in the No. 5 spot among states with the highest risk of porch piracy.

The Action Network included online-search volume for terms like “package stolen” and “porch pirates.” Sustained spikes in these searches suggest that “people are actively looking for guidance after something has happened. Search trends serve as an early warning system, revealing emerging-risk areas well before annual crime statistics are released,” the network says.

Tips to avoid being a victim
So, how do you prevent porch pirates from snatching packages that end up on your porch? Omnisend, The Action Network and Amazon offer these eight tips:

Closely monitor deliveries and quickly retrieve packages.
Schedule deliveries for times when you’ll be home.
Use delivery lockers or in-store pickup when possible.
Ask delivery services to hide packages in out-of-sight spots outside your home.
Install a visible doorbell camera or security camera.
Coordinate deliveries with neighbors or building managers if you’ll be away from your home when packages are supposed to arrive.
Request that delivery services hold your packages if you can’t be home when they’re scheduled to come.
Illuminate the path to your doorstep and keep porch lights on.

holidays porch pirates crime

Tops in Texas

How Texas schools stack up on new rankings of best U.S. colleges

SMU ranks among the top five schools in Texas according to a new list of the best U.S. colleges by Forbes.

Unhappy holidays

Porch pirates pilfer nearly $2B worth of Texas packages, study shows

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