educational excellence

3 Dallas schools named top colleges for 2027 by The Princeton Review

University of Texas at Dallas graduation regalia

The University of Texas at Dallas is one of the top 50 best value public colleges for 2027.

The University of Texas at Dallas/Facebook

Back-to-school season is has returned in full force, and that means it's time for college rankings. Three Dallas universities — Southern Methodist University, The University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Dallas — are being hailed top of the class for 2027.

The three Dallas-area schools earned new acclaim in The Princeton Review's new ranking of the "Best 392 Colleges" for 2027. Across town, Texas Christian University in Fort Worth also earned high praise.

The Princeton Review's 35th annual "Best Colleges" rankings are determined by a survey of 172,000 current college students that gave "candid feedback" about their schools and their experiences. The flagship guide does not rank the schools overall, but it does rank them across 50 different categories, including best-run colleges, best quality of life, happiest students, best athletic facilities, among others.

Schools don't pay to be included in the guide, but The Princeton Review clarified that schools could pay for a "featured" designation. No Dallas-Fort Worth school paid to be featured in this year's guide.

In addition to being included in the overall list, Southern Methodist University was highlighted in the regional Best Southwest list that contained 41 universities across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

"This mid-size private university provides 'a wealth of academic resources...[and] a flood of opportunities for those who want them,' allowing SMU to lead the way for the Dallas-Fort Worth area in developing innovative industries and initiatives in semiconductors, biotechnology, clean energy, precision medicine, and AI," the university's profile says.

This is how the other Dallas schools shined in The Princeton Review's guide:

University of Dallas, Irving

Best Value Colleges
Best Southwest
The Best 392 Colleges
No. 2 – Most Religious Students
No. 5 – LGBTQ-Unfriendly (based on "how strongly students disagree that their fellow students treat all persons equally, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression")
No. 6 – Most Politically Conservative Students
No. 15 – Professors Get High Marks
No. 17 – Happiest Students
No. 24 – Pot's Not Hot (a ranking of colleges with the "least marijuana usage based on ratings from real students about the popularity of marijuana on campus.")

University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson

Best Value Colleges
Best Southwest
Green Colleges (colleges that "share superb sustainability practices, a strong foundation in sustainability education, and a healthy quality of life for students on campus.")
The Best 392 Colleges
No. 3 – Top 20 Best Public Schools for Internships
No. 3 – Top Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies in the Southwest
No. 21 – Top 50 Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies
No. 40 – Top 50 Best Value Public Colleges

universities dallas university of dallas university of texas at dallas southern methodist university the princeton review rankings

Big Business

11 booming Dallas-Fort Worth companies zoom to top of Inc. 5000

Dallas Texas Downtown Drone Skyline Aerial

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Allen-based Yantran is riding the information technology wave all the way to the top of the Inc. 5000’s 10 fastest-growing private companies.

With three-year revenue growth of 258,740 percent, the company appears at No. 3 on this year’s Inc. 5000 list. The prestigious 2026 list ranks private companies based on percentage revenue growth from 2022 to 2025.

Yantran, founded in 2022, is an IT services, technology consulting, and AI-driven product development company. It ranks as the No. 1 fastest-growing IT services company in the U.S., as well as the No. 1 fastest-growing company in Texas and the Metroplex. It's joined by 10 other booming Dallas-Fort Worth businesses in the top 250.

The honorees will be recognized October 14-16 at the 2026 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, which will be held in Dallas. The other Dallas-Fort Worth companies at the top of the list are:

No. 12 Paek Management Group, 12,520 percent (Irving)
No. 82 Elite Robotics and Automation, 3,334 percent (Fort Worth)
No. 133 Outamation, 2,291 percent (Southlake)
No. 147 Red Creek Solutions, 2,119 percent (Frisco)
No. 155 JobTread Software, 2,071 percent (Dallas)
No. 164 DAX Eyewear, 1,977 percent (Nevada)
No. 186 Optimized Waste Removal, 1,830 percent (Fort Worth)
No. 204 Freight Flex, 1,642 percent (Denton)
No. 212 Maverick Power, 1,591 percent (McKinney)
No. 229 Innovative Life Sciences, 1,494 percent (McKinney)

The Metroplex leads Texas with the most companies in the top 250 of this year's Inc. 5000. DFW is followed by Austin (10 companies); Houston (seven companies); and San Antonio , El Paso, and Amarillo (one company each):

Austin

No. 9 Investment Watches, 15,741 percent
No. 72 Razor Metrics, 3,856 percent
No. 91 Autonomize AI, 2,921 percent
No. 102 Choose Your Horizon, 2,719 percent
No. 132 Wander Staffing, 2,296 percent
No. 144 Everyday Dose, 2,179 percent
No. 148 NetRise, 2,118 percent
No. 163 Nutrabound Labs, 1,999 percent (Bastrop)
No. 179 Steadily, 1,890 percent
No. 208 Tiny Health, 1,624 percent

Houston

No. 3 Epique Realty, 23,210 percent
No. 27 Empact Technologies, 8,275 percent
No. 60 Action1, 4,512 percent
No 75 Signs By G, 3,684 percent
No. 79 The ’Pause Life, 3,469 percent (Galveston)
No. 110 Turtlebox Audio, 2,576 percent
No. 178 Dahnani Private Equity Group, 1,904 percent (Stafford)

San Antonio

No. 118 Hire With Near, 2,421 percent

El Paso

No. 80, LEH Homes, 3,438 percent

Amarillo

No. 249, Optimum Rope Access Solutions, 1,361 percent

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A version of this article originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.com.

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