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.

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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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Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

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This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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