{"id":202156,"date":"2026-03-13T00:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T00:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202156\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T00:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T00:08:13","slug":"utep-ranked-texas-second-most-affordable-college-fifth-for-education-quality-in-2026-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/202156\/","title":{"rendered":"UTEP ranked Texas\u2019 second most affordable college, fifth for education quality in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The University of Texas at El Paso has been ranked the second most affordable college in Texas in the new 2026 rankings released by Research.com<\/a>, while also landing in the top five statewide for overall quality of education.<\/p>\n

Research.com\u2019<\/a>s 2026 list placed UTEP fifth best in Texas for quality of education, ahead of Rice University, Texas Tech University and Texas Christian University, among others.<\/p>\n

UTEP continues to be recognized for its great value,\u201d UTEP President Heather Wilson said. \u201cIncreasingly, we are also being recognized for the excellence of the education we provide. UTEP is one of the best investments students and their families can make.<\/p>\n

The rankings were compiled through an analysis of university data points from multiple sources, including Peterson\u2019s Data, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s College ScoreCard. Research.com said it considered factors such as overall quality, affordability, popularity and the time required to earn a degree, across various degree types and regions. The rankings also weighed factors including academic excellence and rigor, a wide range of degree offerings and return on investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cUTEP is committed to creating opportunities for all students,\u201d said Amanda Vasquez, Ph.D., UTEP vice president for enrollment management. \u201cWe recognize that the costs of college can create barriers for families, so UTEP offers robust financial aid programs designed to address our students\u2019 financial needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

UTEP reported that 72% of undergraduate students received grants or scholarships \u2014 not loans \u2014 in the last five years. In the 2025-26 school year, the university said the average first-year student who qualified for grants and scholarships received $10,317, and the average out-of-pocket cost of tuition and fees after aid was around $735 per year for those students. <\/p>\n

UTEP also said it has disbursed about $162 million in grants and scholarships to undergraduate students in 2025-26.<\/p>\n

The university also highlighted several measures of student outcomes and recognition, including that its six-year graduation rates are now at the Texas average after increasing by 24% over the past 21 years. UTEP said it is tied for fourth in Texas for Fulbright Scholarship recipients, behind only Baylor, UT Austin and Rice University, and noted that Forbes ranked UTEP among the top 15 colleges in the nation for launching careers.<\/p>\n

UTEP describes itself as America\u2019s leading Hispanic-serving university. <\/p>\n

The university said 84% of its 26,000 students are Hispanic and more than half are the first in their families to go to college. <\/p>\n

UTEP also said it is in the top 5% of universities in America for research and offers 169 bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s and doctoral degree programs at what it calls the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED: E<\/a>l Paso’s Desert Spoon Food Hub marks 10 years, founded by mom and daughters<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up <\/a>to receive the top interesting stories from in and around our community once daily in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 The University of Texas at El Paso has been ranked the second most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-202156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}