US News College Rankings is the ‘popular’ college ranking lists, but since they use questionable data that skews 
towards the Ivy Leagues, many professionals in the field want more, a better list, more information. Washington Monthly has given that to us. Using new criteria, Washington Monthly has developed a ranking system based on the three issues that are most important to higher education: social mobility, research, and community service.
“Unlike U.S. News and World Report and similar guides, this one asks not what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country. Are they educating low-income students, or just catering to the affluent? Are they improving the quality of their teaching, or ducking accountability for it? Are they trying to become more productive—and if so, why is average tuition rising faster than health care costs? Every year we lavish billions of tax dollars and other public benefits on institutions of higher learning. This guide asks: Are we getting the most for our money?”
Using the National Universities list, here are how Texas universities lined up:
#3 Texas A&M
#10 UT El Paso
#24 UT Austin
#30 Rice University
#99 UT Dallas
#130 University of Houston
#154 University of North Texas
#156 Sam Houston State University
#164 Our Lady of the Lake University
#166 Texas A&M- Corpus Christi
#188 UT- San Antonio
#190 Texas A&M- Commerce
#199 UT- Arlington
#202 Texas Tech University
#230 Baylor University
#249 SMU
#250 TCU- Texas Christian University
The low rankings of the private, religious colleges in Texas should point out that some schools don’t always practice what they preach: both TCU and Baylor ranked low on community service, low in faculty receiving awards, and low in faculty in national academies, while maintained an average cost of more than three times that of the public universities.
About the Rankings from Washington Monthly
We rate schools based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: Social Mobility (recruiting and graduating low-income students),Research (producing cutting-edge scholarship and PhDs), and Service (encouraging students to give something back to their country). For an explanation of each category:
- Click here for National Universities.
- Click here for Liberal Arts Colleges.
- Click here for Masters Universities and Baccalaureate Colleges.
Methodology
To learn more about our methodology for best-bang-for-buck colleges, clickhere.
To learn more about our methodology for four year colleges and universities, click here.
For more information about the overall goals of the rankings, click here.
