college rankings

2 San Antonio-area schools ace Princeton Review’s best colleges list

There's a lot to love about Trinity University.

Trinity University/Facebook

Two top-tier universities around San Antonio were just inducted into a new "hall of fame" list of the best colleges in the U.S. for 2026. Trinity University and Texas State University in San Marcos were praised in education services company The Princeton Review's "The Best 391 Colleges: 2026 Edition."

Released August 12, the comprehensive guide annually ranks the best universities across 50 categories based on a survey of 170,000 current college students. Survey questions covered topics such as a school's academics and administration, student quality of life, politics, campus life, city/town life, extracurricular opportunities, and social environment.

The Princeton Review did not numerically rank the schools overall, but it does report the top 25 schools (out of the total 391) for each of the 50 different categories. The report also clarifies that while schools did not pay to be included in the guide, they could pay for a "featured" designation. Of the two San Antonio-area schools included in the list, the only one that paid to be "featured" was Trinity University.

Trinity appeared in the overall 391 best colleges list, and it also appeared in the regional "Best Southwest" list, the "Best Value Colleges" list, and the "Colleges That Create Futures" list. According to the school's profile, students feel like they are in an environment where "ideas, passions, and questions can be fully explored."

"We believe in a campus that thrives as a community where you can engage in difficult dialogues, explore other cultures, start your own club, and find common bonds," the profile says. "We want our campus to feel like a home — a place where you can truly express yourself and feel supported."

Here's how Trinity University performed in other Princeton Review rankings:

No. 10 – Best Science Lab Facilities
No. 24 – Best Health Services
No. 25 – Best College Dorms
No. 46 – Top 50 Best Value Private Colleges

Trinity University has also earned praise in a separate 2024 ranking of the best small colleges in America, and it's the third-best Texas university for 2025.

In addition to being named in the overall 391 best colleges, Texas State University in San Marcos appeared in The Princeton Review's "Best Southwest" and "Green Colleges" lists. Among the school's accolades are its "strong STEM program," and its caring staff of professors.

"I can't emphasize how much I love my professors and coursework," one student wrote in Texas State's profile. "Honestly, school has felt like a hobby these past years that I have thoroughly enjoyed."

Texas State earned less-than-stellar rankings for having the 25th "least politically active students," and it ranked No. 20 in The Princeton Review's list of schools where "financial aid [is] not so great."

Other Texas universities that were included in The Princeton Review's guide are:

The University of Texas at Austin
Southwestern University in Georgetown
Texas A&M University in College Station
University of Houston
Rice University in Houston
Angelo State University in San Angelo
Baylor University in Waco
Texas Christian University in Fort Worth
Southern Methodist University in Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson
University of Dallas in Irving
Austin College in Sherman

universities colleges innovation san antonio trinity university texas state university san marcos princeton review rankings

Jobs report

Texas ranks as No. 7 best state to find a job, says new report

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

It's easier to get hired in Texas than in nearly any other state.

If you’re hunting for a job in Texas amid a tough employment market, you stand a better chance of landing it here than you might in other states.

A new ranking by personal finance website WalletHub of the best states for jobs puts Texas at No. 7. The Lone Star State lands at No. 2 in the economic environment category and No. 18 in the job market category.

Massachusetts tops the list, and West Virginia appears at the bottom.

To determine the most attractive states for employment, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 34 key indicators of economic health and job market strength. Ranking factors included employment growth, median annual income, and average commute time.

“Living in one of the best states for jobs can provide stable conditions for the long term, helping you ride out the fluctuations that the economy will experience in the future,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo says.

In September, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Texas led the U.S. in job creation with the addition of 195,600 jobs over the past 12 months.

While Abbott proclaimed Texas is “America’s jobs leader,” the state’s level of job creation has recently slowed. In June, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas noted that the state’s year-to-date job growth rate had dipped to 1.8 percent, and that even slower job growth was expected in the second half of this year.

The August unemployment rate in Texas stood at 4.1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. Throughout 2025, the monthly rate in Texas has been either four percent or 4.1 percent.

By comparison, the U.S. unemployment rate in August was 4.3 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2025, the monthly rate for the U.S. has ranged from 4 percent to 4.3 percent.

Here’s a rundown of the August unemployment rates in Texas’ four biggest metro areas:

Austin — 3.9 percent
Dallas-Fort Worth — 4.4 percent
San Antonio — 4.4 percent
Houston — 5 percent

Unemployment rates have remained steady this year despite layoffs and hiring freezes driven by economic uncertainty. However, the number of U.S. workers who’ve been without a job for at least 27 weeks has risen by 385,000 this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in August. That month, long-term unemployed workers accounted for about one-fourth of all unemployed workers.

An August survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York showed a record-low 44.9 percent of Americans were confident about finding a job if they lost their current one.

This story originally was published on our sister site, InnovationMap.

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