Report card time

2 Dallas universities graduate to top of new ranking of Texas' best schools

SMU is in the top 10.

Two esteemed Dallas universities are once again at the top of the class. Personal finance website WalletHub has added to the accolades of the University of Dallas and Southern Methodist University with a No. 6 and No. 7 ranking in Texas, respectively, among 2022’s best colleges and universities.

They're the only Dallas-Fort Worth schools to make the top 10 list in Texas, which looks like this:

Rice University, No. 6 nationally.
University of Texas at Austin, No. 45 nationally.
Trinity University in San Antonio, No. 61 nationally.
Texas A&M University in College Station, No. 127 nationally.
Southwestern University in Georgetown, No. 144 nationally.
University of Dallas, No. 152 nationally.
Southern Methodist University in University Park, No. 178 nationally.
Austin College in Sherman, No. 192 nationally.
LeTourneau University in Longview, No. 231 nationally.
University of Houston, No. 238 nationally.

Coming in just outside the top 10, at No. 11, is University of Texas at Dallas (ranked 252 nationally), and at No. 12 is Texas Christian University in Fort Worth (ranked 253 nationally).

To determine the top-performing schools, WalletHub compared more than 1,000 institutions in the U.S. across 30 key measures, including student-to-faculty ratio, graduation rate, and post-school median salary.

Nationally, University of Dallas ranks highest in the categories of "student selectivity" (141 nationally), "faculty resources" (275), and "career outcomes" (282).

SMU ranks highest in the categories of "student selectivity" (98 nationally), "career outcomes" (114), and "education outcomes" (115).

The newest list comes on the heels of a ranking from Niche.com that included three DFW schools in the top 10: SMU, TCU, and University of Texas at Dallas.

Once again, though, Houston's Rice University was named the best school in Texas. WalletHub deemed it No. 1 in Texas and No. 6 nationally among colleges and universities.

In Texas, Rice appears at No. 1 for admission rate, graduation rate, gender and racial diversity, and post-school median salary. Not every ranking is that stellar, though. Rice ranks 50th for on-campus crime among 55 Texas schools and 52nd for net cost.

More students soon will be able to take advantage of Rice’s top-tier education. In March, the school said it would enlarge its undergraduate enrollment by 20 percent — to 4,800 — by the fall of 2025, up from more than 4,200 in the fall of 2020.

“Expanding the student body now will also expand Rice’s future alumni base across the nation and around the world,” said Robert Ladd, chairman of the Rice Board of Trustees, in a release. “Welcoming more students to the Rice campus today will have an impact on the university for generations to come.”

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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.

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