(UTRGV Photo by David Pike)
Thursday, December 23, 2021
Around Campus
By Amanda Alaniz
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS — UTRGV was recently named a 2021 Top Colleges for Your Money by Forbes.com, joining a prestigious list that also includes Stanford, Princeton, Georgia Tech, Harvard and MIT.
The online publication ranked the top 25 schools nationwide that deliver the best return on investment, as determined by the Price-to-Earnings Premium. UTRGV ranked eighth on the list (5th among public schools) and was the only Texas university ranked among the top 10.
Stanford, Princeton, Georgia Tech, Harvard and MIT ranked third, fourth, fifth, seventh and 13th, respectively.
(UTRGV Illustration by Creative Services)
President Guy Bailey said that being ranked alongside some of the most prominent universities in the country reflects UTRGV’s exceptional ability to offer a high-quality education at an affordable price.
“At UTRGV, we are committed to helping ensure that our students graduate and obtain excellent jobs, all without having to mortgage their futures,” Bailey said. “This recognition by Forbes is a testament of our faculty and staff working together for the success of our students. We have and will continue to provide many opportunities that will help our students graduate while remaining affordable.”
Earlier this year, to assist more students, the university announced it was expanding its Tuition Advantage program to $100,000, and revealed its new Luminary Scholars program.
This December, UTRGV graduated more than 3,900 students at its in-person Fall 2021 Commencement ceremonies.
Additionally, Forbes also announced its overall 2021 America’s Top Colleges rankings, with UTRGV ranked among the Top 10 Texas Public Universities list, joining Texas Tech, Texas A&M and UT Austin.
To rank the institutions, the magazine reviews colleges and universities that educate undergraduates, based on their Carnegie Classification, a higher education framework that categorizes schools by degree offerings, research output and specialty focus.
It also reviews doctoral research universities, master’s universities and colleges and baccalaureate colleges, as well as colleges with four-year programs in engineering, business and art. Average debt, average grant assistance, graduation rate and retention rate all are considered in the methodology.
To view the Forbes America’s Top Colleges list, visit https://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/.
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.