Best Online Colleges in Texas 2025

The Lone Star State is known for its cuisine, cattle ranching culture, and world-class colleges. From top-ranked public universities to elite private colleges, Texas is one of the best places to earn your degree. And you don’t have to live in the Lone Star State to attend a Texas college.

Accredited online colleges prioritize flexibility, academic quality, and value. Our ranking of the best online colleges in Texas can help you find the right fit to earn your degree.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges is the primary institutional accreditor for colleges and universities in Texas. However, colleges in the state may hold accreditation from other recognized accreditors. Trade and career schools, for instance, may be accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges.

Choosing an accredited college gives you access to federal financial aid and legitimizes your degree. If you attend an unaccredited school, you may be unable to transfer your credits or pursue graduate school.

Depending on your career goals, your degree program may also need to hold programmatic accreditation. For example, to become a licensed social worker in Texas, you must graduate from a bachelor’s or master’s in social work program accredited by the Council on Social Work Education.

Texas’s public tuition consistently ranks below the national average. In-state tuition at a Texas four-year public institution costs an average of $1,555 less annually and $667 less annually at two-year Texas colleges.

Even if you’re not a Texas resident, you can study in a specialized field and pay in-state tuition rates at some colleges through the academic common market if you live in one of the other 14 participating Southern Regional Education Board states:Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia.

In addition to tuition, you’ll need to pay for books and supplies, such as a computer, to learn online. You’ll also need to cover your living costs while studying.

Texas financial aid programs include in-state tuition for students in neighboring states, plus scholarships and grants. You can fill out the FAFSA to access federal financial aid, and then look into Texas-specific opportunities, including:

Texas boasts three of the 10 largest cities in the U.S.: Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, each with a population of one million or more. Texas is also known for vibrant college towns, an affordable cost of living, and growing cities for young professionals:

Texas is known for its strength in the energy industry, especially in oil and gas, but it is also home to industry leaders in aviation, aerospace, defense, biotechnology, and IT. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in November 2024 that Texas’s unemployment rate was 4.2%, comparable to the national average of 4.1%.

Texas job opportunities abound at companies such as Tesla and NASA, as well as major public universities like Texas A&M, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and the University of Texas at Austin. The biggest employers in Texas include Amazon, American Airlines, BP, Capital One, Charles Schwab, ExxonMobil, Facebook, JP Morgan Chase, Lockheed Martin, Southwest, and Toyota.

The Texas Workforce Commission reported a 14.7% increase in jobs in Texas from 2022-2023, much higher than the national average.

The fastest-growing jobs in Texas — nurse practitioners, wind turbine service technicians, and data scientists, to name a few — span various industries. Several fast-growing careers fall within IT, including computer and information research scientists, information security analysts, and software developers.

These careers are expected to grow between 43% and 63% over the next decade, substantially higher than the national average.

The highest-paying jobs in Texas include healthcare careers — nurse anesthetists, psychiatrists, physicians, and most specialized physician careers top the list — as well as IT, financial, and aerospace careers.

Many of the highest-paying jobs in Texas are projected to grow more than twice the national average for all careers, with financial managers projected to grow 32.3% from 2022-2032.