Texas Tech University

Public · Moderately Selective · TX

Photo: Michael Barera (CC BY-SA 4.0)

School data & stats

TypePublic

LocationTX · South

SettingUrban

Undergrads32,394

Student:faculty20:1

Outcomes

4-yr grad rate47.4%

6-yr grad rate68.7%

Drop-out rate15%

Study abroad—

Cost

In-state tuition$12k

Out-of-state tuition$24k

Application fee—

Community

Racial diversity48.2%

Gender diversity50%

International2.1%

Identity—

Overview

Texas Tech University is a major public research university in Lubbock, on the plains of West Texas, serving as the region's main anchor for higher education across a wide stretch of the state with few other four-year options nearby. Its Spanish Renaissance-style campus, one of the largest contiguous campuses in the country, gives it a distinctive and unified architectural identity uncommon among large public schools, with red-tile roofs and arched walkways tying together buildings built across a century.

Academics

Engineering through the Whitacre College of Engineering, agriculture, and business through the Rawls College of Business are historic strengths tied to the surrounding region's energy, wind, and agricultural economy, and the university's National Wind Institute takes direct advantage of West Texas's wind resources for both research and industry training. The university also operates its own health sciences center, including a medical school, and a law school, giving Texas Tech a pipeline from undergraduate programs into professional and graduate study that many public universities its size lack. The Vietnam Center and Archive, one of the country's most significant collections on the war, is a research resource that draws scholars from well beyond Texas.

Campus & student life

Lubbock is a mid-sized city whose identity is deeply tied to the university, and Red Raider athletics and game days at Jones AT&T Stadium are central to student life, complete with the Masked Rider's traditional entrance and the "Guns Up" hand sign. The scale of the campus supports a wide range of student organizations and a strong Greek and traditions culture typical of Texas's large public flagships. The National Ranching Heritage Center, located on campus grounds, gives students an unusual, tangible connection to the region's ranching history.

Getting in

Admissions is holistic but places real weight on academic preparation for its more competitive programs, particularly engineering and the pathways into its medical and law schools, while remaining broadly accessible for most majors. Texas Tech draws heavily from West Texas and the broader state, and it functions as a natural landing spot for students who want Big 12 athletics and flagship-scale resources without the size or cost of the state's largest public systems.

After graduation

Graduates are well placed in Texas's energy, agriculture, and engineering sectors, and the presence of medical and law schools gives Texas Tech a stronger in-house professional pipeline than most peer public universities, with an alumni base concentrated across West Texas and the broader state. Wind energy and petroleum-adjacent engineering graduates in particular find ready regional employment given the concentration of those industries near Lubbock.

Worth knowing

Lubbock is genuinely remote from Texas's major metro areas, which some students find freeing and others find isolating; it's worth visiting before committing if a big-city backdrop matters. The unified campus architecture and immense size mean walking distances between classes can be considerable, and the wind Lubbock is known for is a real, near-daily feature of outdoor campus life.

ttu.edu ↗

Admissions

Acceptance rate72.7%

Enrolled mid-50%SAT 1090–1280 · ACT 23–28

Test policyoptional

Rec letters0

Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)

AdmissionRolling

Applying (2026-27 cycle)

Apply through Common App or ApplyTexas.

Priority / scholarshipDec 1

Verified from the school’s admissions pages ↗