Students considering the best universities in Dallas can choose from more than 30 higher education institutions offering engineering, healthcare, and fine arts programs. According to the Dallas Regional Chamber, the schools awarded more than 54,000 degrees in 2020, including bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Dallas schools also awarded associate degrees and certificates.
Graduates can find rewarding careers in energy, financial services, manufacturing, and healthcare, among other fields. The Dallas-Fort Worth region boasts multiple emerging research universities and renowned healthcare systems.
Here are some best universities in Dallas for your reference:
Southern Methodist University
The university was chartered on April 17, 1911, by the southern denomination of the Methodist Episcopal Church. At the time of the charter, church leaders saw a need to establish a Methodist institution within a metropolitan area. Originally, this new institution was intended to be created in Fort Worth through a merger between Polytechnic College (now Texas Wesleyan University) and Southwestern University. However, the church's education commission instead opted to create a new institution in Dallas to serve this purpose after extensive lobbying by the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. Robert Stewart Hyer, previously president of Southwestern University, was appointed as the first president of the new university.
Constructed in 1915, Dallas Hall remains the centerpiece of the campus.
The effort to establish a new university in Dallas drew the attention of the General Conference of the Methodist Church, which was seeking to create a new correctional institution in the wake of a 1914 Tennessee Supreme Court decision stripping the church of authority at Vanderbilt University. The church decided to support the establishment of the new institution while also increasing the size of Emory University at a new location in DeKalb County, Georgia. At the 1914 meeting of the General Conference, Southern Methodist University was designated the connectional institution for all conferences west of the Mississippi River.
SMU named its first building Dallas Hall in gratitude for the support of Dallas leaders and local citizens, who had pledged $300,000 to secure the university's location. It remains the university's symbol and centerpiece, and it inspired "the Hilltop" as a nickname for the school. It was designed by Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge after the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. Dallas Hall opened its doors in 1915 and housed the entire university along with a bank and a barbershop. The hall is registered in the National Register of Historic Places.
Robert Stewart Hyer, physics professor and first president of Southern Methodist University.
Classes were planned to officially begin in 1913, but construction delays on the university's first building prevented classes from starting until 1915. In the interim, the only functioning academic department at SMU was the medical college it had acquired from Southwestern University.
Perkins Chapel serves as the primary worship setting for Perkins School of Theology.
As the first president of Southern Methodist University, Hyer selected Harvard crimson and Yale blue as the school colors in order to associate SMU with the high standards of Ivy League universities. Several streets in University Park and adjacent Highland Park were named after prominent universities.
Dallas Baptist University
Dallas Baptist University (formerly known as Decatur Baptist College) opened in Decatur, Texas in 1898. The Baptist General Convention of Texas purchased the land in 1897 from Northwest Texas Baptist College. The school enjoyed a rich, full history in Decatur until 1965 when it moved to Dallas at the invitation of the Dallas Baptist Association.
The school's historic Administration Building in Decatur, built in 1893, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was destroyed in a fire on March 18, 2023, after years of service as the Wise County Heritage Museum.
In October 1965, Dallas Baptist College began offering classes to its first class of over 900 students. The initial piece of land for the campus, overlooking Mountain Creek Lake in the hill country of southwest Dallas, was donated by John Stemmons, Roland Pelt, and associates. An interested group of businessmen donated additional acreage, and in 1994 a donation by the Louis Hexter family brought the current size of the DBU campus, known as University Hill, to 292 acres (1.18 km2). In 2018, an additional land acquisition increased the total campus size to 368 acres.
In 1968, the college moved from junior college to senior-college status, subsequently offering its first four-year bachelor's degrees in May 1970. In 1985, the college officially changed its name to Dallas Baptist University. The new structure consisted of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Mary C. Crowley College of Christian Faith, the Dorothy M. Bush College of Education, and the College of Business.
University of North Texas at Dallas
In 1997 State Sen. Royce West suggested a feasibility study for a state university in southern Dallas County, an area of Dallas County that is predominantly African American and was then served only by the private Paul Quinn College. The campus, which was to become the first public university within Dallas city limits, was launched at a temporary location in the spring 2000 semester with an enrollment of 204 part-time students, or a full-time equivalent enrollment of 55.
The Dallas City Council approved a resolution in June 2001 to provide up to $3 million by January 2002 to buy about 200 acres (0.81 km2) in southern Dallas' I-20 corridor for the future UNT Dallas campus. Private donations raised the size of the property for the new university campus to 264 acres (1.07 km2).
A 2001 bill passed by the Texas Legislature and signed into law by Governor Rick Perry authorized the UNT System to establish UNT Dallas as an independent university once enrollment reached 2,500. A 2003 bill changed the requirement to the equivalent of 1,000 full-time students for one semester.
A ground-breaking ceremony for the first building on the future campus took place in October 2005. The first 76,000-square-foot (7,100 m2), permanent building on the UNT Dallas Campus site was occupied in January 2007. The building was made possible by a state tuition revenue bond (TRB) initiative of $25.5 million. Further funding from the same source was used to construct the second building, and construction began in 2009.
Enrollment on the UNT Dallas Campus initially grew at an average annual rate of 14 percent per year and reached the necessary full-time equivalent of 1,000 students during the spring semester of 2007. In April 2009, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board certified this enrollment and granted UNT Dallas status as an independent general academic institution. Freshmen and sophomores were admitted for the first time in the Fall of 2010.
Wade College
The college was founded by Sue Wade in 1962 and was originally located in the Turtle Creek area. It moved to the Dallas Apparel Mart in the Dallas Market Center area in 1965. Relocating again in 2004 to its current location in the Infomart which is in the heart of the Dallas Design District provides the students numerous opportunities to work the various trade events and major retail markets.
The Wade College logo has evolved from the first Miss Wade's Fashion Merchandising College one designed by a student in the early 1960s, the second was also designed by a student in 2002/2003; and the third was designed in 2009 by Jason Graham former Graphic Design Chairman at Wade College who is currently LA-based graphic designer. The 2014 logo/brand was designed by the Richards Group and RBMM in 2014. The 2014 artwork from the Richards Group was used to create the revised 2017 logo/brand by a Wade College alumnus/marketing director.
Bakke Graduate University
BGU was founded by a global network originally started by Billy Graham in the early 1970s called the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization (LCWE). As a result, BGU began in the early 2000s with an already globally distributed student body and faculty network in over 50 countries. A value statement BGU adapted from LCWE is “The Whole World, the Whole City, the Whole Church, the Whole Gospel and the Whole Person.” BGU's founders also included leaders from the World Evangelical Alliance, Leadership Foundations, World Vision and local Seattle and Tacoma urban leaders.
The original name proposed for BGU in 2003 by naming consultants was “Paradox University” reflecting the difficulty of having pastors, business leaders, and urban ministers in the same courses with different mindsets and viewpoints. Instead the school was named “Bakke Graduate University” to reflect the story of a family that was part of the founding group which had four siblings with prominent careers in business, urban ministry, church and women's leadership that mirrored the paradox of the school's vision.
BG's main campus is currently located in Dallas but it serves more as a hub to support global activities. Many of BUG's regents, faculty, and staff are globally dispersed in locations where the majority of BGU students also reside. Students are not required to relocate from their home countries to earn a BGU degree.
Criswell College
Classes began on January 12, 1971, after being founded in 1970 as the Criswell Bible Institute. The school would later be known as the Criswell Center for Biblical Studies before assuming its current name in 1985. The college is named after its founder, W. A. Criswell, long-time pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas. James Bryant was the founding dean.
Texas oilman, conservative activist, and First Baptist Church of Dallas member H.L. Hunt provided much of the financial support establishing Criswell College.
The college has been affiliated with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention since 2001 (SBTC provides some financial assistance and has representation on Criswell's board, but the college is independently owned and operated). The college offers Diplomas, Associate of Arts, Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts and Master of Divinity degrees.
In 2013, the board of trustees approved plans for an expansion of the undergraduate curriculum and relocation. The expanded curriculum now includes undergraduate majors such as Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE), Education, and Psychology.
In 2015 the college applied for an exception to Title IX allowing it to discriminate for religious reasons against students based upon sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy, and marital status. In 2016 the organization Campus Pride ranked the college among the worst schools in Texas for LGBT students.
Past presidents include Criswell, H. Leo Eddleman, Paige Patterson, Richard Melick, C. Richard Wells, and Jerry A. Johnson. Barry Creamer is the seventh and current president. Johnson resigned from the college in 2008 citing "philosophical differences with the chancellor and trustee leadership about the future of Criswell College." In a related development in 2010, the school officially separated from First Baptist Church of Dallas. Johnson returned as president later that year before leaving in 2013 to become president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB).
Paul Quinn College
The college was founded by a small group of African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church preachers in Austin, Texas, on April 4, 1872, as the Connectional School for the Education of Negro Youth. Originally, its classes were held in churches and people's homes, but in 1877 the school moved into its own building in Waco, Texas.
The college was renamed Waco College. Classes were held in a modest one-building trade school; freedmen were taught the skills of blacksmithing, carpentry, tanning, and saddle work, common occupations for the era, especially in the increasingly segregated state. This was the model established by the Tuskegee Institute.
Presidents of Paul Quinn College :
1872 – 1876 Bishop John M. Brown
1876 – 1880 Bishop Richard Harvey Cain
1880 – 1883 H.T. Kealing
1883 – 1891 I.M. Burgan
1891 – 1892 N.A. Banks
1904 – 1908 W.I. Laws
1908 – 1911 D.A. Butler
1911 – 1914 I.M. Burgan
1914 – 1924 J.K. Williams
1924 – 1926 J.F. Williams
1926 – 1928 N.A. Banks
1928 – 1932 Dean Mohr
1932 – 1939 A.S. Jackson
1939 – 1942 J.W. Yancy II
1942 – 1943 George Davis
1943 – 1946 George Singleton
1946 – 1951 Nanie Bell Aycock
1951 – 1953 Sherman L. Green, Jr.
1953 – 1956 Frank R. Veal
1956 – 1962 John H. Adams
1962 – 1969 L.H. McCloney
1969 – 1976 Stanley E. Rutland
1976 – 1978 Reuben D. Manning
1979 – 1981 William D. Watley
1981 – 1982 L.H. McCloney
1982 – 1984 Norman W. Handy
1984 – 1992 Warren W. Morgan
1992 – 1992 Winston D. Powers
1992 – 2001 Lee E. Monroe
2002 – 2005 Dwight J. Fennell
2006 – 2007 John Waddell
2007 – Present Michael J. Sorrell
Later, under the direction of Bishop William Paul Quinn (1788–1873), A.M.E. districts were developed throughout the South and tasked with raising funds to improve the college. During this period, more than twenty acres of additional land was purchased and the curriculum was expanded to include the classical subjects of Latin, mathematics, music, theology, English, plus vocational skills in carpentry, sewing, and household, kitchen, and dining room work. In May 1881, the college was chartered by the State of Texas and changed its name to Paul Quinn College to commemorate the contributions of Bishop William Paul Quinn. In 1898 the school had seven faculty, including four women.
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