College guide states that the university is bringing flagship-level education to Rio Grande Valley and redefining what a regional public university can accomplish
By News and Media Relations
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – AUG. 25, 2025 – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has been ranked No. 7 nationally and No. 1 in Texas for the third consecutive year in Washington Monthly’s 2025 College Guide, which evaluates how effectively institutions deliver value to students and taxpayers. The announcement comes as UTRGV marks its 10th anniversary of expanding affordable, high-quality higher education across the Rio Grande Valley.
Unlike prestige-driven rankings, Washington Monthly focuses on how colleges mobilize talent and resources for the public good – keeping education affordable, expanding access, graduating students into strong outcomes and encouraging community service.
“This recognition speaks directly to who we are as a university,” said UTRGV President Guy Bailey. “For 10 years, we’ve committed to affordability, access, and completion – and being ranked seventh in the nation and first in Texas reflects that mission. This is more than a milestone; it’s a blueprint for the future of public higher education. We are just getting started.”
UTRGV is the only Texas university in this year’s Top 30; the next Texas institution doesn’t appear until No. 46.
UTRGV ranks alongside Princeton (No. 5) and ahead of several highly selective universities, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (10), Stanford (13), the University of Pennsylvania (15), Duke (16), Cornell (21), Brigham Young University (BYU) (22), Harvard (28), and Brown (29). This placement reflects UTRGV’s combination of low net price, strong social mobility impact, growing research activity and workforce contributions across healthcare and other high-demand fields.
“When the top 10 universities in the nation were named, UTRGV stood alone in representing Texas – and by a significant margin,” Bailey said. “That speaks volumes about the determination of every student, faculty and staff member at UTRGV. We like to call UTRGV The Future of Texas – and today, the nation agrees.”
WASHINGTON MONTHLY: HIGH PRAISE FOR UTRGV
In a profile naming UTRGV among its “25 Best-in-Class Colleges,” Washington Monthly notes that the university was established to provide flagship-level opportunities to the state’s poorest region – and it has delivered in just a decade.
Other institutions on the Best-in-Class list include BYU, Arizona State, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and University of California, Berkeley.
“There’s nothing generic about (UTRGV). Its programs reflect the needs of the borderlands,” the magazine stated. “And its students, overwhelmingly local, are reshaping what public higher education can look like when built with – and for – a community. UTRGV is redefining what a regional public university can do.”
Washington Monthly also ranked UTRGV second nationally in Best Hispanic-Serving Institutions and second in Best Bang for the Buck – Southern Colleges.
ABOUT WASHINGTON MONTHLY RANKINGS
Published for nearly two decades as an alternative to prestige-driven lists, Washington Monthly’s College Guide ranks more than 1,400 four-year institutions based on the value they provide to students and taxpayers. The 2025 methodology weights four areas equally – access, affordability, outcomes and community & national service – drawing on federal datasets (IPEDS, College Scorecard, NSF). Metrics are standardized, averaged across three years, and capped to limit outliers.
To view the Washington Monthly rankings, visit washingtonmonthly.com/2025-college-guide.
