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4 Dallas-Fort Worth universities earn top spots on new list of best U.S. colleges

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Southern Methodist University ranks among the best of the best.

Facebook/SMU Cox School of Business

Four Dallas-Fort Worth area universities have risen through the ranks in a highly anticipated new list of the country's best universities.

Niche, an education review and ranking website, has deemed Southern Methodist University the fifth best college in Texas, down from No. 4 last year. The university receives an A+ grade in five of the 12 ranking categories, including professors, student life, and party scene. It gets an A for the academics and athletics, an A- for diversity and campus food, and B for vl and safety.

Southern Methodist University also ranked highly in other categories, including:

No. 1 of 333 Best Christian Colleges in America
No. 7 of 454 Best Colleges for Sports Management in America
No. 7 of 100 Most Conservative Colleges in America

More individual rankings can be found here.

SMU regularly earns ranks on lists of the best colleges and universities in the country, including those published by Niche, Forbes, and U.S. News & World Report.

"I liked the smaller class sizes and connections I had with my professors," a student wrote in a Niche review. "The campus is pretty and the students are active in organizing and participating in extracurricular activities."

Fort Worth's Texas Christian University ranked right behind SMU as the sixth best Texas college for the third year in a row, and the second best Christian college in the U.S. TCU earned an A+ in four out of 12 categories, including athletics, student life, and campus. The school also earned an A for its academics and party scene, a B- value and safety, and a B for the campus food.

The University of North Texas in Denton made waves as the No. 7 best public university in the state, but only ranked No. 12 in the overall list of best Texas colleges. It earned an A+ for the campus food, an A in student life, diversity, and party scene, a B+ in academics, value, and professors, and a C+ for the dorms.

The University of Texas at Dallas fell from No. 9 last year into No. 14 for the best statewide colleges, but maintained its No. 9 spot in the best public universities in Texas. The university earned an A in diversity, A- in safety, B+ in academics, professors, value, and location, and a C for its athletics and party scene.

Topping Niche’s national list is Yale University, followed by Stanford University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Dartmouth College.

Here are the top 10 Texas schools:

1. Rice University (Houston)
2. University of Texas at Austin
3. Texas A&M University (College Station)
4. Trinity University (San Antonio)
5. Southern Methodist University (University Park)
6. Texas Christian University (Fort Worth)
7. Texas Tech University (Lubbock)
8. University of Houston
9. University of Texas Permian Basin (Odessa)
10. Baylor University (Waco)

“Choosing where to go to college is easily one of the most significant — and expensive — decisions of a person’s life. Niche’s mission is to ensure that every college-bound student has access to easy, transparent and free resources … to help them find their best fit,” Luke Skurman, founder and CEO of Niche, says in a news release.

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A version of this article originally ran on our sister site InnovationMap.

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family values

Dallas sees Texas' biggest one-year jump in cost of raising kids

Courtesy of SmartAsset/iStock

Raising a child in Dallas will cost parents over $23,000 this year.

Raising a child is not an easy or inexpensive feat, and a new study has determined Dallas parents are saddled with the second-highest costs for childrearing in Texas, with expenses jumping higher than any other metro statewide since 2025.

SmartAsset's latest report, "Cost of Raising a Child in Major U.S. Metros – 2026 Study," calculated year-over-year changes in the annual cost of raising a child (factoring in childcare, additional housing costs, food, transportation, medical costs and other necessities) in the 48 largest U.S. metro areas. MIT's Living Wage Calculator was used to compare the living costs of a household with two working adults and one child to that of a childless household with two working adults.

Childrearing costs in Dallas-Fort Worth have grown 4.5 percent since last year, totaling $23,340 for a family of three in 2026. That's over $1,000 more than what it took to raise a child in 2025, and it's $1,414 higher than what it took in 2024.

This is how SmartAsset broke down the cost for raising a child in Dallas:

Cost of childcare: $10,736
Cost of food: $1,826
Other expenses: $10,778

Though Dallas has the second-steepest costs for raising a child in Texas, the metro is actually much more affordable than most other places in the U.S.: DFW ranked 39th in SmartAsset's national list of cities with the highest childrearing costs in 2026, making it the 10th most affordable U.S. metro for raising a family.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont in California topped the list with the highest childrearing costs in the U.S., at $43,171. The cost for raising a child in this California metro soared nearly 11 percent higher since last year.

Memphis, Tennessee ranked dead last as the most affordable U.S. metro for raising a child in 2026. Families will spend less than $20,000 to raise a child in Memphis, only 3.24 percent more than what was needed in 2025.

Raising a child in other Texas metros
It may come as no surprise that Austin is the most expensive place to raise a child in Texas, and it appeared as the 31st most expensive U.S. metro for families. Parents will spend nearly $25,000 to raise a child in the state's capital city, which is $703 higher than it was a year ago.

Meanwhile, San Antonio-New Braunfels is the most affordable metro in the Lone Star State for raising a family, and it's the third-most affordable place for raising a child nationwide. San Antonio parents will spend $21,393, or $448 more than last year, on their childrearing costs.

Houston also ranked among the top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for raising a child, landing in 7th place nationally, with childrearing costs adding up to $22,605 in 2026. That's only $737 more than last year.

The top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for raising a child in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Memphis, Tennessee ($19,922)
No. 2 – Nashville, Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee ($21,216)
No. 3 – San Antonio-New Braunfels ($21,393)
No. 4 – Birmingham, Alabama ($21,684)
No. 5 – Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, Virginia ($22,314)
No. 6 – Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia ($22,470)
No. 7 – Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ($22,605)
No. 8 – Richmond, Virginia ($22,658)
No. 9 – Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky ($23,270)
No. 10 – Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ($23,340)

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family values

Dallas sees Texas' biggest one-year jump in cost of raising kids