Mindful Mustangs

Dallas' SMU anointed No. 1 Christian college in new national ranking

SMU has some of the best Christmas lights in Dallas each holiday season.

Photo by Austin Anderson on Unsplash

Amen and Pony up! Dallas' Southern Methodist University has been named the best Christian college in the U.S. in a new national ranking of universities.

Niche, an education review and ranking website, has rated SMU No. 1 among Best Christian Colleges in America for 2025, two places ahead of cross-town rival TCU in Fort Worth, which is merely the third-best Christian school. St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, lands in between them at No. 2.

Baylor University only manages a No. 5 "best Christian" ranking, even though it was named one of the cheeriest colleges at Christmas last year. (But it has nothing on SMU's annual Celebration of Lights, which includes reading of the Christmas story by SMU president R. Gerald Turner from his family Bible.)

Out of all 1,517 U.S. colleges ranked in Niche's new survey, SMU comes in at a respectable No. 105.

SMU also ranks among the top 50 nationally in the categories of:

No. 7 Best Colleges for Sports Management in America
No. 9 Best College Campuses in America
No. 19 Best Colleges for Accounting and Finance in America
No. 23 Top Party Schools in America
No. 33 Best Colleges for Music in America
No. 37 Most Conservative Colleges in America
No. 41 Best Greek Life Colleges in America
No. 44 Best Colleges for Communications in America
No. 45 Colleges with the Best Student Life in America

SMU's full rankings can be found here.

The premier Dallas university receives an overall grade of A, earning an A+ in three of the 12 ranking categories — student life, party scene, and location. It gets an A for academics, professors, and campus; an A- for diversity, athletics, and campus food; a B+ for dorms; a B for safety; and a B- for value.

"I didn't have many expectations when I came to SMU, but now, I am so happy I decided to come here. SMU's campus is amazing, whether it comes to academics, extracurriculars, campus life, or being in Dallas," reads one five-star review by a student who saw the light.

Yale University tops Niche’s national list for 2025, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Brown University, Vanderbilt University, and Johns Hopkins University.

Rice University in Houston ranks first among the best colleges in Texas, and No. 15 nationally. SMU ranks fifth in Texas for 2025.

The top 10 Texas schools for 2025 are:

No. 1 Rice University
No. 2 University of Texas at Austin
No. 3 Texas A&M University
No. 4 Trinity University
No. 5 Southern Methodist University
No. 6 University of Houston
No. 7 Texas Tech University
No. 8 Texas Christian University
No. 9 University of North Texas
No. 10 University of Texas at Arlington

Among colleges in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, SMU ranks No. 1, and TCU takes No. 2. Rounding out the top nine DFW are University of North Texas (No. 3), University of Texas - Arlington (No. 4), University of Texas - Dallas (No. 5), Texas Woman's University (No. 6), University of Dallas (No. 7), University of North Texas at Dallas (No. 8), and Southwestern Adventist University (No. 9).

Find Niche's complete 2025 college rankings here.

niche college rankings southern methodist university texas christian university universities university of north texas tcu

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

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Unhappy holidays

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