Southern Methodist University leads the list of the most expensive colleges in Texas, according to American City Business Journals research.
SMU’s total cost for fiscal year 2018 is $72,408. Other private schools also led the Texas list with Houston’s Rice University as the second most expensive in the state with a cost of $63,158. Fort Worth’s Texas Christian University was the third most expensive at $62,970.
SMU also ranked as the fourth-most expensive school in the country in the national rankings, behind the University of Chicago ($75,735), Columbia University ($74,199) and Northwestern University ($72,980). No other Texas colleges were in the top 100. Rice ranked at No. 134 nationally.
Click here to see details on the 41 most expensive colleges in Texas.
The schools were ranked by the total in-state cost of attendance for fiscal year 2018 as reported by the Department of Education.
SMU’s cost has increased 53 percent since fiscal year 2009 and 8 percent since fiscal year 2016. On average, costs have increased at Texas colleges 45.8 percent since 2009 and 6.5 percent since 2016.
According to the US News and World Report Best Colleges Rankings, 31 percent of full-time undergraduate students at SMU receive some amount of need-based financial aid, and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $21,799.
Nationally, costs have increased 53.8 percent since 2009 and 6.3 percent since 2016.
Other local schools near the top of the list were Irving’s University of Dallas, ranking No. 5, Sherman’s Austin College at No. 6, and Dallas Baptist University at No. 9.
The national average cost of attendance for the 1,442 public and private colleges in the research was $35,909. The average for the 63 colleges in Texas was lower at $32,262.