WalletHub Ranks Southwestern University #1 in Texas for the Second Consecutive Year
Southwestern tops Texas in WalletHub’s 2027 Best Colleges Rankings of primarily undergraduate institutions, and made strides in the personal finance company’s more expansive 2027 Best Colleges & Universities Rankings.
For the second year in a row, Southwestern University has been ranked #1 in Texas on WalletHub’s Best Colleges Rankings. In the popular personal finance company’s rankings of primarily undergraduate institutions, SU also checked in at #5 in the south, a one-spot increase from a year ago, and matched last year’s national ranking at #41.
WalletHub’s annual Best Colleges Rankings highlight institutions that provide class, campus, and enrollment sizes that are relatively smaller and more preferable for students who seek a more intimate social setting and more focused attention from instructors.
“The top colleges in the U.S. provide small class sizes and have one faculty member for every seven to nine students, which creates a very personalized education experience,” WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo said. “The best colleges also offer very safe campuses and have plenty of opportunities for enrichment through things like NCAA athletics or study abroad programs. Graduates from the top schools get significant salary bumps compared to the general population, with the median salary ten years after enrolling around $78,000 or more.”
In their 2027 Best College Rankings, WalletHub compared nearly 70 colleges across 30 key measures, grouped into seven categories — student selectivity, cost and financing, faculty resources, campus safety, campus experience, educational outcomes, and career outcomes — to determine where prospective students can expect to receive a top-notch education.
Southwestern earned especially high marks for campus safety (#20 in the nation), student selectivity (#32 in the nation), and cost and financing (#33 in the nation). WalletHub’s student selectivity metric is a measure of admission rate, incoming student ACT and SAT scores, and share of first-year students ranking in the top 10 percent of their high school graduating class. Their cost and financing category takes into account net cost, availability of employment services for students, and student loan debt.
Southwestern also made strides in WalletHub’s more expansive 2027 Best Colleges & Universities Rankings, improving from #7 to #5 in Texas, from #36 to #32 in the south, and from #177 to #168 in the nation. This list features 740 institutions across a wide variety of educational offerings, from doctoral and master’s universities to baccalaureate and associate’s colleges.
Southwestern’s #5 ranking in Texas falls among private schools Rice University (#1) and Trinity University (#2), large state institutions the University of Texas (#3) and Texas A&M University (#4), and fellow liberal arts colleges the University of Dallas (#6) and Austin College (#7).
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