university ranking news

12 DFW universities land on U.S. News' 2026 list of best colleges

SMU maintained its status as Texas' 5th best university.

SMU Facebook

A dozen Dallas-Fort Worth universities have made U.S. News and World Report's just-released list of best schools in the nation for 2026, with Southern Methodist University landing on top in Dallas-Fort Worth.

U.S. News' prestigious Best Colleges rankings annually compare nearly 1,700 U.S. colleges and universities using 17 metrics that measure "academic quality." Schools are ranked nationally, regionally, and by specialty.

SMU maintained its status as the 5th best university in Texas, and it moved up three spots to rank No. 88 nationally after slipping into No. 91 last year. SMU is joined in Texas' top 10 by Texas Christian University in Fort Worth (No. 6) and The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson (No. 7).

SMU has a 63 percent acceptance rate, and students pay $69,722 yearly for in-state tuition and fees, according to the school's profile.

Iron Skillet heartbreaker aside, this has proven to be a great year for the Mustangs. The university's exceptional graduate programs constantly land atop U.S. News' separate rankings of best grad schools, and its alumni reportedly experience notable long-term career success.

Forbes named SMU among its top universities for 2025, and the school also earned acclaim on The Princeton Review's "hall of fame" list of the best U.S. colleges for 2026.

Other top universities in Dallas-Fort Worth
Texas Christian University was the only other DFW school to rank among the overall top 100 best universities in the country for 2026. It retained its No. 6 spot in Texas for another consecutive year, and it tied for No. 97 in the national rankings after falling to No. 105 last year.

In-state tuition and fees add up to $63,590 a year for TCU students, U.S. News says, and the public university's competitive acceptance rate is only 44 percent. Students benefit from having a 14:1 student-faculty ratio, and 39 percent of classes have fewer than 20 students.

The five other Dallas-Fort Worth schools that ranked among U.S. News' national list include:

No. 110 – The University of Texas at Dallas (tied)
No. 208 – University of North Texas (tied)
No. 222 – The University of Texas at Arlington (tied)
No. 329 – Texas Woman's University (tied)
No. 384 – Dallas Baptist University (tied)

Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, a town located less than 30 miles south of Fort Worth, tied for No. 17 in U.S. News' regional ranking of Best Colleges in the West for 2026.

In the regional ranking of Best Universities in the West, four Dallas-Fort Worth schools made the cut: University of Dallas (No. 9), The University of North Texas at Dallas (No. 41), Parker University (No. 46), and Waxahachie's Nelson University (No. 81), formerly known as Southwestern Assemblies of God University.

U.S. News' top 10 best colleges in Texas for 2026 are:

No. 1 – Rice University, Houston
No. 2 – University of Texas at Austin
No. 3 – Texas A&M University, College Station
No. 4 – Baylor University, Waco
No. 5 – Southern Methodist University, Dallas
No. 6 – Texas Christian University, Fort Worth
No. 7 – The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson
No. 8 – University of Houston
No. 9 – Texas Tech University, Lubbock
No. 10 – University of St. Thomas, Houston

us news & world report rankings college rankings colleges southern methodist university texas christian university university of north texas university of dallas ut dallas

Welcome to Texas

Texas remains No. 1 draw for movers despite slowing migration

Welcome to Texas sign

undefined

Texas continues to be the country’s No. 1 magnet for newcomers from other states, giving a boost to the state’s economy. However, Texas’ appeal weakened in 2024 compared with the previous year, due in large part to spiking home prices.

An analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by self-storage platform StorageCafe shows Texas saw net interstate migration of 76,000 people in 2024. Texas’ net interstate migration dropped nearly 50 percent from 2023, according to the analysis. Net migration refers to the number of incoming residents minus the number of outgoing residents.

California remained the top source of newcomers for Texas, sending nearly 77,000 residents to the Lone Star State in 2024, the analysis says. Florida ranked second, followed by New York, Colorado and Illinois.

“These trends reveal Texas’ continued pull from both high-cost coastal markets and other large Sun Belt states, resulting in a mix of affordability-driven and job-driven relocation,” StorageCafe says.

Putting a damper on the influx of new residents: a roughly 124 percent surge in Texas home prices over the past decade, according to StorageCafe.

“While the state remains significantly more affordable than California, its top feeder state, the once-wide pricing gap has narrowed,” says StorageCafe. “For many movers, Texas is still a relative bargain, but no longer an undisputed one.”

Nonetheless, Texas keeps attracting young, highly educated people, which bodes well for the state’s long-term economic outlook, StorageCafe says. More than half of new arrivals to Texas in 2024 held at least a bachelor’s degree, and the age of newcomers averaged 32.

Where are most of these young, highly educated newcomers settling?

Lloyd Potter, former Texas state demographer, tells StorageCafe that population growth in Texas is happening most rapidly in suburban “ring counties” at the expense of slowing growth in urban cores. Ring counties are on the outskirts of major metro areas.

“Many people are moving from urban cores to suburban rings seeking lower costs, newer housing, better schools, and more space,” Potter says. “Typically, a move to a suburban county will be within commuting or hybrid‑commuting distance of major metro economies.”

---

This story originally appeared on our sister site, InnovationMap.

population texas population growth