Money Magazine
Money magazine ranked St. Mary’s University the top Catholic university in the Southwest and No. 26 of all Catholic institutions in its 2019 Best Colleges ranking. The magazine also ranked St. Mary’s the second best university in San Antonio, seventh in Texas and No. 220 of 744 nationally. Schools were ranked based on quality of education, affordability and graduates’ job success.
National Designation
St. Mary’s University, through the M.S. in Cyber Security program, has been designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD).
The Cyber Security master’s program is also ranked No. 15 in Cybersecurity Guide’s 2024 rankings.
Did you know?
St. Mary’s is a nationally recognized Hispanic-Serving Institution with a diverse student population of more than 3,500 of all faiths and backgrounds.
U.S. News & World Report
The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal, as U.S. News & World Report has said.
St. Mary’s ranking in the 2024 Best Colleges also tied for the No. 14 spot out of 120 universities in the West for academic quality. The University has been included in the list of top-tier regional universities for 30 consecutive years.
U.S. News introduced a ranking for Top Performers on Social Mobility in 2019 to evaluate which schools best serve underrepresented students. This measurement evaluates how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants. Students receiving these grants typically come from households with family incomes of less than $50,000 annually, according to the methodology.
St. Mary’s ranked No. 20 in the West. St. Mary’s also ranked first in San Antonio in this analysis for the fifth year in a row.
For the third year in a row, the St. Mary’s University School of Law Advocacy Programs ranked in the top 20 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report — moving up to tie for the No. 14 spot in the 2023 Best Graduate School Rankings released in March. U.S. News and World Report named the St. Mary’s University School of Law to its short list of racially and ethnically diverse law schools.
U.S. News also ranked the University’s undergraduate Engineering programs. View the St. Mary’s profile.
Forbes
Forbes magazine ranked St. Mary’s 23rd in Texas and No. 101 in the South. This annual review of undergraduate institutions measures those that deliver the best academics, experiences, career successes and the lowest debt.
Did you know?
Compared to other Texas colleges and universities, St. Mary’s University provides an education that ranks highly on its return on investment to students, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. The value of students’ investment in their education at St. Mary’s increases dramatically over time. Evaluating the investment 40 years from today earns St. Mary’s a spot among the top 15% of schools studied.
Equality of Opportunity Project
The New York Times published an interactive tool exploring economic diversity and student outcomes in U.S. colleges and universities. The tool is based on a study by the Equality of Opportunity Project, which formulated “mobility report cards” by analyzing public data on 30 million college students and their parents. It studies their pre- and post-college income to reveal just how well the school they attended prepared them for life after college.
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution gave St. Mary’s a score of 99 out of 100, making it the top university in San Antonio, second in Texas and 17th nationally for how well it prepares students for careers – ahead of Harvard, Notre Dame, Yale, Texas A&M and UT-Austin.
Brookings uses government and private data to analyze college value-added, considering the economic success of graduates – incomes, occupations and loan repayment rates.
Significant Return on Investment
The Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities found that Catholic institutions offer students a higher return on investment (ROI) just 10 years after degree completion than other private and liberal arts colleges, outpacing them by at least $15,000. Then, just five years later, Catholic colleges begin to increase their lead in ROI over all other types of institutions, including public colleges and universities. The Catholic edge becomes pronounced in the long term (40 years after degree completion), showing the highest median ROI among all types of higher education institutions — 16% higher than private nonprofit universities and 27% higher than public institutions. Read more in the ACCU newsletter, Update.
Wall Street Journal
St. Mary’s lies in the upper echelon of 47 ranked colleges in Texas. Nationally, St. Mary’s tied for 495th of 1,054 schools.
This ranking, established in 2016 by the Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education, takes college resources, student engagement, graduate outcomes and learning environment into consideration.
Colleges of Distinction
St. Mary’s appears on national, Texas and Catholic Colleges of Distinction lists. An honor, not a ranking, Colleges of Distinction has been recognizing excellence in undergraduate higher education for more than 20 years. It focuses on four distinctions: engaged students, great teaching, vibrant community and successful outcomes.
For 2023-2024, St. Mary’s was also recognized as a College of Distinction for Career Development and Military Support as well as for its Business, Education and Engineering programs.
PayScale
PayScale has repeatedly recognized St. Mary’s for alumni with top salary potential in their careers, and this year was no different.
St. Mary’s was again among Texas’ top schools in the College Salary Report. PayScale also has St. Mary’s ranked 352 of 1589 colleges nationally.
College Factual
St. Mary’s University is considered one of the best schools for the money according to College Factual’s recent rankings, affiliated with USA Today. St. Mary’s has been ranked #20 in Texas. This puts the school in the top 15% for students seeking a quality education at an affordable price. St. Mary’s also earned kudos for best value among social sciences and business administration students. Explore more on the College Factual ranking report.
San Antonio Express-News
Triple gold awards! The annual Readers’ Choice awards lets South Texas readers vote on their favorite institution of higher education and other categories. In 2016, St. Mary’s ended UTSA’s seven-year reign atop the College/University category.
Niche
Niche ranked St. Mary’s third of colleges in San Antonio and No. 7 of Best Small Colleges in Texas. St. Mary’s was also highly ranked among the Best Catholic Colleges in America (51 of 166) and Best Hispanic-Serving Institutions in America (55 of 378).
Niche’s overall rankings stem from federal data as well as student and alumni reviews to help get a clearer picture of each school’s quality.
Washington Monthly
St. Mary’s has routinely been listed among the best master’s universities in the country. There were 616 schools in Washington Monthly’s 2021 College Guide. St. Mary’s also ranked No. 83 of 211 universities in the South for Best Bang for the Buck.
College Choice
St. Mary’s ranked No. 4 on the 51 Best Colleges and Universities in Texas list and No. 14 (of 35) on the Best Western Regional Universities list in 2017.
College Choice uses data from U.S. News, the National Center for Education Statistics and PayScale.
Princeton Review
The Greehey School of Business at St. Mary’s was among outstanding on-campus MBA programs on the Princeton Review’s national and regional lists for the “Best Business Schools of 2023.”
The St. Mary’s School of Law made the list “Best Law Schools for 2023.”
Texas Lawyer
Texas Lawyer magazine listed the St. Mary’s University School of Law’s Master of Laws program as the best in the state.
American Bar Association
The St. Mary’s University School of Law advocacy program was ranked No. 5 nationally in 2018-2019 by the ABA. The ABA has created this award to recognize law schools that go above and beyond to help prepare their students for practice.
Success in these competitions illustrates St. Mary’s commitment to providing a well-rounded curriculum and preparing students to become highly skilled lawyers.
PreLaw Magazine
PreLaw magazine ranked St. Mary’s University School of Law among the best law schools in the nation for Hispanics in its “Best law school’s for diversity” article in the Winter 2018 edition.
The analysis included number of minority students, the number of minority faculty and the services available to minority students.
TrustNodes – Best Universities to Study Blockchain Technology
TrustNodes – a news outlet that focuses on blockchain, bitcoin, ethereum and other financial technology – named the St. Mary’s School of Law among the world’s best in this emerging field, alongside institutions such as Cornell, Cambridge, MIT and Johns Hopkins. Angela Walch, Associate Professor of Law, has become an expert in the field, and she teaches her students about the legal and ethical issues surrounding blockchain technology.
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) ranked St. Mary’s University’s Master of Industrial/Organizational Psychology program 11th overall out of 129 of the top master’s programs in the nation affiliated with the society. The program, which provides students with a challenging curriculum and pairs students with alumni mentors to enhance their professional development, earned fifth in Applied Experiences for Students and 15th in Curriculum.