What the 2027 Rankings Do—and Do Not—Tell Us about Texas Higher Education, by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

What the 2027 Rankings Do—and Do Not—Tell Us about Texas Higher Education

by 

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

October 22, 2026

The newly released U.S. News & World Report rankings deserve more scrutiny than the usual horse-race coverage of who moved up and who moved down. The headline is that six Texas universities remain among the nation's top 100. But underneath that relatively reassuring news is a striking pattern of decline among a number of the state's public universities—and particularly among institutions in the University of Texas System (Wilhelm, 2026).

UT Austin fell from No. 30 to No. 34 nationally. Texas A&M dropped eight places, from No. 51 to No. 59. Outside the top 100, UT Dallas fell 11 places, UT San Antonio and UT Arlington each fell 14, UT Rio Grande Valley fell 37, Texas State fell 31, UT Tyler fell 13, and the University of Houston–Clear Lake fell 35 (Wilhelm, 2026).

The UT System pattern in particular merits attention. Every UT System institution singled out in this article for year-to-year movement declined: Austin by four places, Dallas by 11, San Antonio by 14, Arlington by 14, Rio Grande Valley by 37, and Tyler by 13. That does not establish that something systemwide caused these declines. Texas Tech, Prairie View A&M, and Texas A&M–Kingsville, for example, moved upward, so there is no uniform “Texas effect” (Wilhelm, 2026). But when several institutions operating under the same system and state policy environment move downward simultaneously, it is reasonable to notice the pattern and watch whether it persists.

At the same time, we should be very careful about what these rankings actually measure. A university's ordinal position is not the equivalent of a report card. UT Austin did not suddenly become "four places worse" as a university. Rankings are relative: an institution can improve on important measures and still fall because other universities improve faster, because institutions enter or leave its comparison group, or because the ranking formula itself changes.

And the formula did change this year.

For the 2027 rankings, U.S. News replaced graduate indebtedness with a new "earnings by major" measure worth 5 percent of the score and began using the updated 2025 Carnegie classifications (Baity, 2026; U.S. News & World Report, L.P., 2026). More broadly, student outcomes account for about 52 percent of the U.S. News formula, while academic peer assessment alone accounts for another 20 percent; faculty and financial resources, standardized test scores, and research measures make up much of the remainder (Baity, 2026).

That context makes UT Austin’s decline especially interesting. The university itself reports that freshman applications reached a record 98,841 this year, its four-year graduation rate rose to a record 77.7 percent, and it awarded a record 16,801 degrees during 2025–26 (University of Texas at Austin, 2026). UT also remains the No. 1 public university in Texas and No. 8 among public universities nationally according to these same U.S. News rankings (University of Texas at Austin, 2026; Wilhelm, 2026). In other words, the four-place decline in the overall ranking coexists with several indicators of very strong institutional performance. That alone should caution us against interpreting No. 34 rather than No. 30 as evidence of a four-step deterioration in educational quality.

UTRGV offers an even more dramatic lesson about the limitations of composite rankings. Its overall national ranking fell an eye-catching 37 places to No. 250 (Wilhelm, 2026). Yet in the very same 2027 rankings, UTRGV climbed 30 places to No. 26 nationally for social mobility and tied for No. 1 among Texas public universities on that measure (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 2026). Which ranking tells us what UTRGV actually contributes to higher education? 

For an institution whose mission centrally involves expanding opportunity in one of the nation's most economically challenged regions, its performance in graduating Pell Grant students arguably tells us something that its position in a single national prestige hierarchy cannot. The U.S. News social mobility measure specifically assesses institutions’ success in enrolling and graduating students who receive Pell Grants (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, 2026).

This is why rankings are never neutral descriptions of "quality." They embody decisions about what counts. Is a great university one whose graduates command high salaries? One with highly paid faculty and abundant financial resources? One highly regarded by other university presidents and provosts? One that produces research? One that enrolls economically disadvantaged students and actually gets them to graduation? 

U.S. News combines these different purposes into a single number using a weighted set of student-outcome, peer-assessment, faculty-resource, financial-resource, research, and other measures (Baity, 2026). The ranking then asks us to believe that No. 34 meaningfully distinguishes an institution from No. 30—or even from the seven universities tied with UT at No. 34. The ranking gives us a precise number, but not necessarily a precise measure of educational quality.

Still, I would not dismiss the Texas declines. Rankings matter precisely because people believe they matter. Prospective students see them. Parents see them. Legislators and governing boards cite them. Potential faculty recruits see them. University leaders use them in fundraising and institutional branding. And because 20 percent of the U.S. News score comes from peer assessment, reputation itself becomes part of the ranking calculation (Baity, 2026). A deterioration in how academic leaders elsewhere perceive an institution can therefore eventually become measurable even when its graduation rates and research productivity remain strong.

That point bears watching in Texas. A recent 2026 Faculty in the South survey drew responses from 1,023 Texas faculty members; about 35 percent said they planned to seek employment outside Texas in the coming hiring cycle, and roughly 70 percent said they would not encourage graduate students or faculty colleagues to seek employment in the state (Surjadi, 2026). Because this was a voluntary survey rather than a representative sample of all Texas professors, those figures should not be treated as population estimates. The survey was distributed through email and social media, with invitations sent to more than 85,000 addresses across participating states (Boedy, 2026). But the results are meaningful evidence of faculty sentiment and of potential recruitment and retention problems that universities should take seriously.

We should therefore resist a tempting but premature conclusion: the 2027 rankings do not prove that recent changes in Texas higher education caused UT Austin or other Texas universities to fall. Much of the information entering these rankings is necessarily retrospective. The new earnings measure, for example, looks at graduates’ earnings four years after graduation (U.S. News & World Report, L.P., 2026). Policies and institutional decisions made in 2025 or 2026 therefore cannot plausibly explain many of the outcome measures appearing in a ranking released in September 2026.

The more important question is prospective: What happens to these universities over the next five years?

If Texas universities become less successful at recruiting and retaining distinguished faculty; if institutional reputation among academic peers weakens; if research capacity deteriorates; if students increasingly choose institutions elsewhere; or if the academic breadth of universities is narrowed, those effects will eventually appear somewhere—in research productivity, faculty resources, graduate programs, peer assessments, student demand, or other measures of institutional quality.

That is why UT Austin’s movement from No. 30 to No. 34 should neither be sensationalized nor waved away. One year's ranking is a data point, not a verdict. But alongside substantial declines at a number of other Texas public institutions—and particularly the cluster of declines across UT System campuses—it is a data point worth remembering (Wilhelm, 2026).

The real test will not be where Texas universities stand in one magazine's rankings this September. It will be whether, five or ten years from now, they remain places where exceptional faculty want to work, talented students want to study, consequential research can flourish, and universities possess the intellectual breadth and institutional conditions necessary to fulfill their public mission.

References

Baity, C. (2026, September 22). ECU once again named among nation’s best colleges. East Carolina University. https://news.ecu.edu/2026/09/22/ecu-once-again-named-among-nations-best-colleges/

Boedy, M. (2026, September 10). Results from the 2026 Faculty in the South Survey. Academe Blog. https://academeblog.org/2026/09/10/results-from-the-2026-faculty-in-the-south-survey/

Surjadi, M. (2026, September 14). More professors want to leave Texas this year, citing political climate, censorship, survey says. The Dallas Morning News. https://www.yahoo.com/news/videos/more-professors-want-leave-texas-124335563.html

University of Texas at Austin. (2026, September 22). UT sets academic performance records, remains the No. 1 public university in Texas. UT News. https://news.utexas.edu/2026/09/22/ut-sets-academic-performance-records-remains-the-no-1-public-university-in-texas/

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. (2026, September 23). UTRGV rises to No. 26 nationally for social mobility in U.S. News & World Report rankings. The Newsroom. https://www.utrgv.edu/newsroom/2026/09/23/2027-us-news-world-report-best-colleges.htm

U.S. News & World Report, L.P. (2026, September 22). MIT claims No. 1 spot in U.S. News 2027 Best Colleges rankings. PR Newswire. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mit-claims-no-1-spot-in-us-news-2027-best-colleges-rankings-302885278.html

Wilhelm, M. (2026, September 22). Six Texas schools crack U.S. News & World Report’s 2027 top 100. Chron. https://www.chron.com/texas/article/texas-us-news-2027-best-colleges-22436271.php

Six Texas schools crack U.S. News & World's 2027 top 100
Some Texas schools climbed while others took a tumble.
By Molly Wilhelm, Trending ReporterSep 22, 2026

19 FEB 2015: Campus Life photos taken at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX.
Sam Houston ranked among U.S. News & World's 2027 Best Colleges regional list for the West. NCAA Photos/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

April 3, 2012. Sewall Hall in Rice University with a student walking in the hallway. Rice University was the top ranking Texas university among U.S. News & World's 2027 Best Colleges list. aimintang/Getty Images
U.S. News & World Report released its Best Colleges of 2027 ranking, and six Texas institutions cracked the top 100.

Houston's Rice University was the top-ranked for Texas, landing at No. 16 nationally—tied with Brown University in Rhode Island, Vanderbilt University in Tennessee and Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

The publication measured academic quality and student outcomes using graduation and retention rates, post-graduation earnings, faculty resources and research, financial resources, incoming students' SAT and ACT scores, and other factors, according to the methodology.

But how did other Texas institutions fare, and did any see a major shift?

Texas A&M main campus clock tower. Texas A&M ranked among U.S. News &
World's top 100 in its 2027 Best Colleges ranking, down eight spots from
last year.Riley Davidson/Getty Images

Texas schools in the top 100

No 16. Rice UniversityTied with Brown University, Vanderbilt University and Washington University in St. Louis.

Up one place from 2026 rankings.

No 34. The University of Texas-AustinTied with Boston University, University of California-Davis, University of California-Irvine, University of Florida, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Wake Forest University.

Dropped four places from 2026 rankings.

No 59. Texas A&M UniversityTied with Brandeis University, Florida State University, George Washington University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Stony Brook University-SUNY, Tulane University of Louisiana, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and University of Pittsburgh.

Dropped eight places from 2026 rankings.

No 85. Southern Methodist UniversityTied with Fordham University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University at Buffalo-SUNY and University of Delaware.

Rose three places from 2026 rankings.

No 90. Baylor University and Texas Christian UniversityTied with Gonzaga University, Marquette University and Yeshiva University

Baylor dropped two places from 2026 rankings, TCU rose seven places.

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus, Brownsville, Texas. The school
fell nearly 40 spots in U.S. News & World's 2027 Best Colleges list.Christine_Kohler/Getty Images

Outside of the top 100, some Texas institutions drop nearly 40 places

Outside the top 100, 12 Texas universities and colleges moved more than 10 spots from last year's national rankings, with some shifting by nearly 40 places:

No. 121. The University of Texas-Dallas (tied)Dropped 11 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 186. Texas Tech University (tied)Rose 12 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 227. University of Texas-San Antonio (tied)Dropped 14 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 236. University of Texas-Arlington (tied)Dropped 14 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 250. The University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (tied) Dropped 37 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 288. Texas State University (tied) Dropped 31 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 308. Abilene Christian University (tied) Rose 21 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 308. University of the Incarnate World (tied) Dropped 15 places from the 2026 rankings.

No. 317. Prairie View A&M University (tied) Rose 26 places from 2026 rankings.

No. 332. Texas A&M University- Kingsville (tied) Rose 20 places from the 2026 rankings.

No. 342. The University of Texas at Tyler (tied) Dropped 13 places from the 2026 rankings.

No. 353. University of Houston-Clear Lake (tied) Dropped 35 places from 2026 rankings.

19 FEB 2015: Campus Life photos taken at Sam Houston State
University in Huntsville, TX. Sam Houston ranked among U.S.
News & World's 2027 Best Colleges regional list for the West.

NCAA Photos/NCAA Photos via Getty Images

The top 10 Texas regional universities and colleges

In addition to its national rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked the top 50 regional universities and colleges. Texas schools were included in the "West" category.

The publication defines regional universities as institutions offering a wide range of undergraduate programs and some master's degrees, but few doctoral programs. Regional colleges focus on undergraduate education, with most degrees in professional fields.

Texas' top 10 regional universities

St. Edward's University (No. 6 overall)
University of Dallas (No. 10 overall, tied)
St. Mary's University of San Antonio (No. 12 overall, tied)
LeTourneau University (No. 29 overall, tied)
Stephen F. Austin State University (No. 29 overall, tied)
Texas A&M International University (No. 34 overall, tied)
West Texas A&M University (No. 37 overall)
Hardin-Simmons University (No. 38 overall, tied)
Sam Houston State University (No. 48 overall, tied)
University of Houston-Downtown (No. 48 overall, tied)

Texas' top 9 regional colleges
Southwestern Adventist University (No. 12 overall, tied)
Texas Lutheran University (No. 12 overall, tied)
Houston-Tillotson University (No. 22 overall)
McMurry University (No. 23 overall)
Howard Payne University (No. 27 overall, tied)
Wiley College (No. 42 overall)
Jarvis Christian University (No. 46-50 overall)
South Texas College (No. 46-50 overall)
Texas College (No. 46-50 overall)

While the University of Houston didn't crack the top 100 nationally, it ranked No. 67 when compared to public universities across the U.S., tied with seven other institutions. It ranked fourth when looking solely at public universities in Texas, according to a UH press release.

"The University earned Top 100 rankings in several other key categories, including Most Innovative Schools (No. 65), Best Value Schools (No. 78) and Best Colleges for Veterans (No. 96)," UH wrote on Tuesday.

Several other schools also ranked in the top 100 for public colleges: UT Austin at No. 8, Texas A&M University at No. 24, The University of Texas-Dallas at No. 58 and Texas Tech University at No. 96.

Super helpful information here on loan forgiveness, a plan, that despite some Republicans' efforts, will go forward. Applying should take no more than a half hour. It takes 4-6 weeks to process. This is such great timely opportunity for folks buried in student debts, especially considering the difficult economy we're experiencing.

-Angela Valenzuela

Everything to know to apply for student loan forgiveness

The application process is now open. Some Republican-led states have filed lawsuits to try to stop the cancellation, but the Biden administration says they’re confident the challenges won’t succeed.

President Joe Biden speaks about the student debt relief portal beta test in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, Monday, Oct. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)(Susan Walsh / ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By The Associated Press

3:09 PM on Oct 19, 2022 — Updated at 3:47 PM on Oct 19, 2022

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. announced in August, will cancel up to $20,000 in debt per borrower. The application process is now open, and the administration says the forms should take five minutes to complete.

Borrowers who apply before mid-November should see forgiveness before Jan. 1, when payments on loans are scheduled to restart after a pause during the pandemic. Some Republican-led states have filed lawsuits to try to stop the cancellation, but the Biden administration says they’re confident the challenges won’t succeed.

Here’s how to apply, and everything else you need to know:

Who qualifies for student loan forgiveness?

You qualify to have up to $10,000 forgiven if your loan is held by the Department of Education and you make less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 for a family. If you received Pell grants, which are reserved for undergraduates with the most significant financial need, you can have up to $20,000 forgiven. If you are a current borrower and a dependent student, you will be eligible for relief based on your parents’ income, rather than your own.

One major lingering question is what will happen to students with commercially held FFEL loans who didn’t refinance before Sept. 29. At the moment those loans are not eligible (even though they were initially going to be eligible). The administration has said it’s looking for “additional legally-available options to provide relief” to those borrowers, but nothing has been announced yet.

How do I apply for loan forgiveness?

Go to studentaid.gov and in the section on student loan debt relief, click “Apply Now.”

Be ready to type in some basic personal information. The form asks for: name, Social Security Number, date of birth, phone number and email address. It does not require documentation about your income or your student loans.

Next, review the eligibility rules and confirm that you’re a match. For most people, that means attesting that they make less than $125,000 a year or that their household makes less than $250,000 a year. If you meet the eligibility rules, click the box confirming that everything you provided is true.

Click “Submit.”

How long will it take to receive forgiveness?

After the form is submitted, the Biden administration says it should take four to six weeks to process. The Education Department will use its existing records to make sure your loans are eligible and to look for applicants who might exceed the income limits. Some will be asked to provide additional documentation to prove their incomes. The Education Department estimates that the verification application will take about half an hour, including time to review and upload tax documents.

Most borrowers who apply before mid-November should expect to get their debt canceled before Jan. 1, when payments on federal student loans are scheduled to restart after a pause during the pandemic.

Will student loan forgiveness definitely happen?

Things could get more complicated, depending on the outcomes of several legal challenges. The Biden administration faces a growing number of lawsuits attempting to block the program, including one filed by six Republican-led states.

A federal judge in St. Louis is currently weighing the states’ request for an injunction to halt the plan. Biden on Monday said he’s confident that the suit will not upend the plan. “Our legal judgment is that it won’t,” he said, “but they’re trying to stop it.”

A group of Wisconsin taxpayers asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to block the program from taking effect, Bloomberg Law reported.

The emergency filing from the Brown County Taxpayers Association seeks to keep the plan on hold while the group’s legal challenge goes forward. Bloomberg News reported the Supreme Court has ruled in the past people generally don’t have the right to take the federal government to court over how tax dollars are spent.

Has the student loan payment freeze been extended?

The payment freeze has been extended one last time, until Dec. 31. The freeze started in 2020 as a way to help people struggling financially during the COVID-19 pandemic and it’s been extended several times since. It was set to expire Aug. 31.

Interest rates will remain at 0% until repayments start. Under an earlier extension announced in April, people who were behind on payments before the pandemic automatically will be put in good standing.

Does graduate student debt qualify?

Yes, federal student loans taken out to cover graduate degrees qualify for forgiveness.

What if my student loan balance includes a lot of interest?

The interest itself is considered part of the balance for purposes of this program. Forgiveness will remove $10,000 from the total balance you owe.

Will I have to pay taxes on the amount I’m forgiven?

At least a few states have said they plan to tax the forgiveness, including Indiana and Mississippi, and it’s unclear whether some others will change their tax rules to exclude forgiven student debt. Previously, Congress eliminated taxes on loan forgiveness through 2025.

Do parent plus loans qualify?

Parent Plus loans are included in the forgiveness plan, subject to the same $250,000 income cap for families that applies to the rest of cancellation.

Parent Plus loans differ from other federal education loans in that they can go towards covering expenses other than tuition, such as books, and room and board for college students. As of March 2022, parents of 3.6 million students owe more than $107 billion in Parent Plus loans, according to the Department of Education. That represents about 6% of the total amount of federal student debt held by Americans.

If a parent received a Parent Plus loan on behalf of a student and the same student received a direct loan, both would receive relief, as the cancellation is on a per-borrower, not a per-student basis. That means that each person who has Education Department-held federal student loans and meets the income requirements qualifies for cancellation.

What’s a Pell grant and how do I know if I have one?

Roughly 27 million borrowers who qualified for Pell grants will be eligible to receive up to $20,000 in forgiveness under the Biden plan.

Pell grants are special government scholarships for lower-income Americans, who currently can receive up to $6,895 annually for roughly six years.

Nearly every Pell Grant recipient came from a family that made less than $60,000 a year, according to the Department of Education, which said Pell grant recipients typically experience more challenges repaying their debt than other borrowers.

Pell grants themselves don’t generally have to be paid back, but recipients typically take out additional student loans.

“This additional relief for Pell borrowers is also an important piece of racial equity in cancellation,” said Kat Welbeck, Civil Rights Counsel for the Student Borrower Protection Center. “Because student debt exacerbates existing inequities, the racial wealth gap means that students of color, especially those that are Black and Latino, are more likely to come from low-wealth households, have student debt, and borrow in higher quantities.”

To find out if you have a Pell grant, check any emails you’ve received that describe your FAFSA award.

How many people will this help?

About 43 million Americans have federal student debt, with an average balance of $37,667, according to federal data. A third of those owe less than $10,000. Half owe less than $20,000. The total amount of federal student debt is more than $1.6 trillion.

What if I’ve already paid off my student loans — will I see relief?

If you’ve voluntarily made payments since March 2020, when payments were paused, you can request a refund for those payments, according to the Federal Office of Student Aid. Contact your loan servicer to request a refund.

What repayment plan is the Department of Education proposing?

The Department of Education has proposed a repayment plan that would cap monthly payments at no more than 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income, down from 10% now. Borrowers will need to apply for the repayment plan if it’s approved, which could take a year or more.

For example, under the proposal, a single borrower making $38,000 a year would pay $31 a month, according a government press release.

The amount considered non-discretionary income will also be increased, through the department has not said how much.

Discretionary income usually refers to what you have left after covering necessities like food and rent, but for student loan repayment purposes it’s calculated using a formula that takes into account the difference between a borrower’s annual income and the federal poverty line, along with family size and geographic location.

“What’s tough about income-driven repayment is that it does not take into account your other liabilities, such as your rent payment,” said Kristen Ahlenius, a financial counselor at Your Money Line, which provides financial literacy training. “If someone’s living paycheck to paycheck and their rent is taking up half of their paycheck and then their car payment takes the other, they have to choose. Unfortunately, income-driven repayment doesn’t take that into consideration, but it is an option.”

Student Debt Relief offers a calculator to help determine your discretionary income.

What if I can’t afford to pay even with loan forgiveness?

Once payments resume, borrowers who can’t pay risk delinquency and eventually default. That can hurt your credit rating and mean you’re not eligible for additional aid.

If you’re struggling to pay, check if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan. You can find out more here.

The Biden plan also includes a proposal that would allow people with undergraduate loans to cap repayment at 5% of their monthly income. Proposals like this one can take a year or more to be implemented, and it’s not clear what the fine print will be.

If you have worked for a government agency or a non-profit organization, you could also be eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, which you can read more about here.

The Dallas Morning News contributed to this report.

By CORA LEWIS and ADRIANA MORGA Associated Press. Collin Binkley contributed to this report from Washington.