Southwestern University

Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, was the first college established in Texas – in 1840 – before Texas was even a state. In fact, it was the original University of Texas! Georgetown is 28 miles north of Austin, about a 45-minute drive to downtown, and was voted the most beautiful town square in Texas. There’s a lot of outdoor recreation in the area, with hiking and biking trails, rivers and a lake. And Southwestern boasts a very active outdoor adventure club – they recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro together!

Southwestern is one of two “Colleges That Change Lives” in Texas, a consortium of wonderful under-the-radar colleges. If you’re not familiar with it, I highly recommend you read about it here: https://ctcl.org/. With 1500 students, they are not looking to grow. 89% of classes have fewer than 25 students, and all seniors must do a capstone project which may be a thesis but can take many other forms.

Here are some fabulous tidbits: Southwestern is ranked #1 by Princeton Review for Best Career Center in Texas, and in 2023, all students who applied to medical school were accepted. Graduate school acceptances from the class of 2023 include Harvard, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Rice, Penn, and NYU. The endowment is $400 million. The president, who came from Pitzer, just finished her fifth year at Southwestern, and has plans to develop 30-40 acres of the 560 they own just east of campus. Live Nation is planning to build a concert venue, boutique hotels and housing. With 100,000 residents, Georgetown is the fastest growing city in Texas and is projected to double in the next ten years. Samsung and Tesla have offices here, and students regularly intern there.

89% of students come from Texas, 44% of them are white, 55% of them are female, and 69% of them come from the top 25% of their high school class. The admit rate is 39%, and admissions decisions are made on a rolling basis – decisions are made in one to two weeks. If students do not send scores, an in-person or Zoom interview is recommended. With an all-in price of $69K, it’s important to know that everybody gets a merit scholarship ranging from $17K to $36K, and the chart is transparently listed on the website. In fact, Princeton Review also recognized Southwestern as a “Best Value College” in 2025 – a reflection of the price and certainly on the return on investment as well.

Southwestern University is a true hidden gem: a gorgeous campus, a faculty devoted to undergraduate teaching, amazing outcomes, and a reasonable cost. It’s worth a deep dive.