Who's Hiring Graduates of Texas Online Colleges?
We found the top employers for graduates of each school featured on our Best Online Colleges by Salary Score in Texas rankings to find out which companies are driving high alumni salaries
Key Insights
- Top industries for alumni from the best online colleges in Texas include education, healthcare, business and finance, and oil and gas
- Some of the largest employers in Texas hire from these top schools
- Most companies employed a range of college majors for administrative and support staff alongside industry-specific roles
Most prospective students want to know how their degree will impact their job prospects when choosing a college. Many people wonder how much they'll earn and where they'll find a job after graduation. To help students make informed decisions about where to enroll, we ranked the top 10 online colleges in Texas by Salary Score, a proprietary ranking system that makes it easy to find colleges whose alumni earn more in their field of study.
We give each school a Salary Score by comparing alumni starting salaries for each degree program to salaries for alumni from the same programs across all colleges. Rather than showing schools with the highest average salaries overall, our Salary Score rankings highlight schools that tend to produce the highest-paid alumni across majors.
Earning potential is an important piece of this puzzle, but which companies are hiring alumni from online colleges? We took a deep dive into employment data for the top 10 online colleges in Texas by Salary Score to answer this question..
The top employers for these universities span a wide range of industries and pull from some of the top employers in the state, including the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Chevron, Houston Methodist, and the Memorial Hermann Health System.
Methodology
We looked at the top five employers for each school on our list of the best online colleges for a bachelor's degree in Texas. Our rankings list evaluates schools by Salary Score at the bachelor's level. All employment data was collected from LinkedIn in June 2021 and filtered by bachelor's degrees to align with our rankings.
For many of these schools, the number one employer was the college itself, which is fairly common. We omitted the universities themselves from our results to give students a more comprehensive look at what job prospects might look like outside the university.
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The largest employer of Texas Permian Basin alumni is Ector County Independent School District. Top employers for UT-Permian Basin alumni are concentrated in education and the oil and gas industry. The Ector County and Midland school districts top the list, with alumni holding a range of positions in teaching, administration, and support staff.
Pioneer Natural Resources (Pioneer) and Chevron also hired a significant share of UT-Permian Basin graduates, which could be contributing to the university's high Salary Score of 94 for Geological and Earth Sciences/Geosciences.
Alumni working for Pioneer held positions in areas such as HR, recruiting and training, accounting, operations, engineering, operations, environmental compliance, and health and safety.
UT-Permian Basin's highest Salary Scores were concentrated in humanities. The university's strongest majors are Human Development, Family Studies, and Related Services, and English Language and Literature. Both have a Salary Score of 99. The university's Sociology and Psychology majors also did well for Salary Score.
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The largest employer of Wayland Baptist University alumni is the United States Air Force. Wayland Baptist University alumni have high employment rates at military and government organizations – not surprising given the university's top major and one of its most popular programs is Criminal Justice and Corrections, with a Salary Score of 94.
Alumni working for the government and military held positions in management and leadership, public affairs and communications, defense, aircraft maintenance, administration, operations, human resources, business and analysis, logistics, and related fields.
The fifth-largest employer for Wayland Baptist alumni is USAA, which provides banking, investment, and insurance services for military members, veterans, and their families.
Wayland Baptist's top two majors for Salary Score are also popular programs within the university: Criminal Justice and Corrections with a Salary Score of 94, and Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities at 92.
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The largest employer of Texas Tech University alumni is Fidelity Investments. Compared to the top two schools, Texas Tech University has a wider range of programs with strong Salary Scores. Their top employers come from the business, finance, and technology sectors.
The top two employers for Texas Tech alumni are Fidelity Investments and USAA, a financial group for military families and veterans. The school has high Salary Scores for their Business and Commerce major with a score of 96, and the Family and Consumer Economics program at 98.
Texas Tech alumni at Fidelity and USAA hold positions in customer service and relations, insurance, personal financial planning, analysis, investment education, retirement planning, contracts management, and marketing, among other areas.
AT&T, Amazon, and Dell Technologies also favored Texas Tech alumni. These employers likely contribute to the university's high Salary Score in Business and Commerce.
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The largest employer is Dallas Independent School District. Dallas Baptist University's strongest field of study is Teacher Education and Professional Development, Specific Levels and Methods, with a Salary Score of 97. This category includes programs for elementary, middle, and high school teachers, as well as early childhood education and preschool. Both the Dallas and Irving school districts hire a significant share of DBU alumni.
The university also has high Salary Scores for several religious and biblical studies programs. Many alumni of these programs go on to work for DBU's fourth-largest employer, GuideStone Financial Resources, a Christian financial services group with ties to the Southern Baptist Church.
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The largest employer of University of Houston - Downtown alumni is Houston Independent School District. University of Houston-Downtown's largest employers are in the teaching, healthcare, and public service sectors. The Houston school district is the top employer for UHD alumni, with graduates working in teaching, administrative, and support positions.
Lone Star College, a Houston-based public community college, also hires a significant portion of UHD graduates. Lone Star College offers bachelor's and associate degrees alongside career training programs and employs professionals from a wide range of industries and fields of study.
UHD alumni working for MD Anderson Cancer Center and the Memorial Hermann Health System held roles in direct patient care, administration, patient access and advocacy, program coordination, research, grant writing, communications, and HR.
The university's top major by Salary Score is Rhetoric and Composition/Writing Studies at 99, one of the highest-scoring colleges in this field of study. UHD also scores well for Marketing with a Salary Score of 95, Computer Engineering Technologies at 92, and Psychology at 89.
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The largest employer of Concordia University - Texas alumni is Austin Independent School District. Concordia University alumni largely went into education – three of the university's largest employers are school districts in the area. Top majors for Salary Score at Concordia included the Teacher Education and Professional Development at 87, and Health and Physical Education/Fitness at 89.
St. David's Healthcare and Dell Technologies are also top employers for Concordia alumni. The university's strongest major is Business/Commerce, General, with a Salary Score of 92.
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The largest employer of Lamar University alumni is Houston Independent School District. ExxonMobil and Motiva Enterprises, both oil refining and gas companies, stand out as top employers for Lamar University alumni. The two oil companies draw from the university's notably strong Chemical Engineering program with a Salary Score of 100 and its Industrial Production Technologies major with a score of 82.
Lamar's American Sign Language major also fared well after graduation with a Salary Score of 98. Some of the program's alumni went on to work for school districts in the area, three of which are top employers for the university.
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The largest employer of Texas Woman’s University alumni is Baylor Scott & White Health. Four of the five largest employers for Texas Woman's University are in the healthcare sector – Baylor Scott & White Health, MD Anderson Cancer Center, faith-based nonprofit Texas Health Resources, and hospital system Houston Methodist all topped the list.
However, the university's Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing major has a Salary Score of 47, so they are a little below average compared to other schools nationwide in terms of salary.
Texas Woman's University does particularly well for arts-related majors, including Music, Dance, Drama, Theatre Arts, and Stagecraft. Some alumni of these programs went on to teach for school districts and colleges in the area, including the university's fourth-largest employer, Dallas Independent School District.
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The largest employer of University of Houston - Victoria alumni is Fort Bend Independent School District. The largest employers for the University of Houston-Victoria are in education and healthcare. Many alumni found positions with the Fort Bend, Katy, and Victoria school districts, and held roles in administration, curriculum development, special education, counseling, and teaching.
UHV does not have enough data on their teaching program at the bachelor's level to evaluate for Salary Score. The school's top majors by Salary Score include Information Science/Studies with a score of 91, English Language and Literature at 83, and Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies at 74. While these majors could funnel alumni to the school districts, many of them also likely needed a teaching certification to qualify for employment.
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The largest employer of LeTourneau University alumni is Lockheed Martin. LeTourneau University's top employers include some big companies in the aerospace and tech sectors. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, AT&T, and Collins Aerospace all hire a significant portion of LeTourneau alumni.
The small Christian polytechnic university offers programs in aeronautical science, business, engineering, healthcare, and other areas of study. Many of the relevant bachelor's programs did not have enough data to be evaluated for Salary Scores, which may be due in part to the school's smaller size.
The university's top majors by Salary Score include Health and Medical Administrative Services at 97, Business Administration, Management and Operations at 94, and Psychology at 74.
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