How much is out-of-state tuition in Texas?

Across the 34 Texas public universities we can honestly score, median annual non-resident sticker tuition is $21,361, ranging from $7,500 to $42,778 — before financial aid. That is $11,901 a year more than the $9,460 median Texas residents pay at the same schools (IPEDS 2023).

How much is in-state tuition in Texas?

Median annual resident sticker tuition across those same 34 Texas public universities is $9,460, before financial aid. The residency line is worth $11,901 a year at the median, and up to $1.06M over a 30-year horizon at The University of Texas at Austin (IPEDS 2023 tuition, FREOPP 2021 earnings, BEA 2023 cost-of-living).

How much more does out-of-state tuition cost in Texas?

At The University of Texas at Austin, paying non-resident tuition instead of resident costs $1.06M over a 30-year horizon — same school, same degree, the only difference is residency. That is the largest out-of-state penalty among the 34 Texas public universities we can honestly score (IPEDS 2023 tuition, FREOPP 2021 earnings, BEA 2023 cost-of-living).

Is paying out-of-state tuition in Texas worth it?

Every Texas school in this ranking stays NPV-positive both ways — the resident and non-resident paths each still pay off — so the honest question isn’t “worth it or not,” it’s how large a cost the residency line adds. At the top of the list that cost is $1.06M over 30 years.

How do out-of-state students avoid non-resident tuition in Texas?

The gap is a pricing line, not a difference in what you receive, so the fix is usually mechanical: establishing in-state residency, a regional reciprocity or tuition-exchange agreement, or a transfer pathway. The size of the prize is the number in this table — up to $1.06M over 30 years at The University of Texas at Austin.

RANKING · THE OUT-OF-STATE TAX · TX

Texas out-of-state tuition: what non-residents really pay.

Same Texas public university, same degree. The only thing that changes is whether your driver’s license matches the state — and at The University of Texas at Austin that one fact swings your 30-year payoff by $1.06M. All 34 qualifying public universities in Texas, ranked by the penalty. Every school below still pays off both ways. The tax isn’t the school — it’s the residency line.

IPEDS 2023 tuition · FREOPP 2021 earnings · BEA 2023 cost-of-living · resident vs non-resident, all else held equal · Texas public four-year only · every school shown is NPV-positive both ways.

Texas in-state and out-of-state tuition, in dollars

Median annual tuition · out-of-state: $21,361
Median annual tuition · Texas resident: $9,460
Median non-resident premium, per year: $11,901

Sticker tuition before aid, across the 34 qualifying Texas public universities below. Non-resident rates run from $7,500 to $42,778 a year (IPEDS 2023). The 30-year figures in the ranking compound that annual gap against what graduates actually earn.

1 The University of Texas at Austin tuition $11,678 in-state → $42,778 out-of-state / yr −$1.06M
2 Texas A & M University-College Station tuition $12,841 in-state → $40,328 out-of-state / yr −$936K
3 The University of Texas at Dallas tuition $14,564 in-state → $40,064 out-of-state / yr −$868K
4 The University of Texas at Arlington tuition $11,727 in-state → $29,659 out-of-state / yr −$610K
5 Texas A & M University-Kingsville tuition $9,892 in-state → $26,106 out-of-state / yr −$552K
6 The University of Texas at El Paso tuition $9,544 in-state → $25,512 out-of-state / yr −$543K
7 Prairie View A & M University tuition $11,299 in-state → $26,874 out-of-state / yr −$530K
8 The University of Texas at Tyler tuition $9,452 in-state → $24,752 out-of-state / yr −$521K
9 University of Houston-Clear Lake tuition $8,322 in-state → $22,506 out-of-state / yr −$483K
10 Texas A&M University-San Antonio tuition $9,354 in-state → $23,164 out-of-state / yr −$470K
11 Texas A&M University-Texarkana tuition $7,930 in-state → $20,947 out-of-state / yr −$443K
12 The University of Texas at San Antonio tuition $9,279 in-state → $22,217 out-of-state / yr −$440K
13 Texas A & M University-Commerce tuition $10,026 in-state → $22,626 out-of-state / yr −$429K
14 Texas Tech University tuition $11,852 in-state → $24,451 out-of-state / yr −$429K
15 University of North Texas at Dallas tuition $9,590 in-state → $22,189 out-of-state / yr −$429K
16 University of Houston tuition $9,711 in-state → $22,191 out-of-state / yr −$425K
17 The University of Texas Permian Basin tuition $9,237 in-state → $21,477 out-of-state / yr −$417K
18 Texas State University tuition $11,450 in-state → $23,210 out-of-state / yr −$400K
19 Texas Southern University tuition $8,637 in-state → $20,397 out-of-state / yr −$400K
20 Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi tuition $9,748 in-state → $21,033 out-of-state / yr −$384K
21 Stephen F Austin State University tuition $10,600 in-state → $20,680 out-of-state / yr −$343K
22 Angelo State University tuition $8,319 in-state → $18,399 out-of-state / yr −$343K
23 Tarleton State University tuition $7,878 in-state → $17,958 out-of-state / yr −$343K
24 Texas Woman's University tuition $8,640 in-state → $18,720 out-of-state / yr −$343K
25 University of North Texas tuition $11,164 in-state → $21,244 out-of-state / yr −$343K
26 The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley tuition $9,467 in-state → $19,542 out-of-state / yr −$343K
27 University of Houston-Downtown tuition $7,536 in-state → $17,472 out-of-state / yr −$338K
28 Lamar University tuition $8,904 in-state → $18,696 out-of-state / yr −$333K
29 Sam Houston State University tuition $9,228 in-state → $19,020 out-of-state / yr −$333K
30 Texas A&M University-Central Texas tuition $7,363 in-state → $17,155 out-of-state / yr −$333K
31 University of Houston-Victoria tuition $7,499 in-state → $17,291 out-of-state / yr −$333K
32 South Texas College tuition $5,220 in-state → $7,500 out-of-state / yr −$78K
33 Midwestern State University tuition $9,950 in-state → $11,900 out-of-state / yr −$66K
34 West Texas A & M University tuition $9,101 in-state → $10,996 out-of-state / yr −$64K

How this is computed (and what it isn’t)

For each Texas public four-year university we run the /worth-it calculator twice with everything identical except the tuition line: once at the school’s resident rate, once at its published non-resident rate. The gap is the “out-of-state tax” — the extra cost of non-residency, compounded over a 30-year net-present-value horizon. Both numbers use the same earnings and the same cost-of-living, so the difference is purely residency tuition.

We only list schools that stay NPV-positive both ways — the point isn’t that any school is a bad bet, it’s that the residency line, an accident of which state you grew up in, is worth more than most scholarships. The fix is usually mechanical: in-state status, a reciprocity agreement, or a transfer pathway.

↓ Download the data (CSV) · The full national dataset — filter the state column to TX for this page’s rows. Free to cite with attribution. · Methodology

Cite this:

LE TEEN (2026). “The out-of-state tax in Texas: public universities ranked by the non-resident tuition penalty.” Data: IPEDS 2023 · FREOPP 2021 · BEA 2023. https://le-teen.com/rankings/out-of-state-tax/tx

Questions

How much is out-of-state tuition in Texas?: Across the 34 Texas public universities we can honestly score, median annual non-resident sticker tuition is $21,361, ranging from $7,500 to $42,778 — before financial aid. That is $11,901 a year more than the $9,460 median Texas residents pay at the same schools (IPEDS 2023).
How much is in-state tuition in Texas?: Median annual resident sticker tuition across those same 34 Texas public universities is $9,460, before financial aid. The residency line is worth $11,901 a year at the median, and up to $1.06M over a 30-year horizon at The University of Texas at Austin (IPEDS 2023 tuition, FREOPP 2021 earnings, BEA 2023 cost-of-living).
How much more does out-of-state tuition cost in Texas?: At The University of Texas at Austin, paying non-resident tuition instead of resident costs $1.06M over a 30-year horizon — same school, same degree, the only difference is residency. That is the largest out-of-state penalty among the 34 Texas public universities we can honestly score (IPEDS 2023 tuition, FREOPP 2021 earnings, BEA 2023 cost-of-living).
Is paying out-of-state tuition in Texas worth it?: Every Texas school in this ranking stays NPV-positive both ways — the resident and non-resident paths each still pay off — so the honest question isn’t “worth it or not,” it’s how large a cost the residency line adds. At the top of the list that cost is $1.06M over 30 years.
How do out-of-state students avoid non-resident tuition in Texas?: The gap is a pricing line, not a difference in what you receive, so the fix is usually mechanical: establishing in-state residency, a regional reciprocity or tuition-exchange agreement, or a transfer pathway. The size of the prize is the number in this table — up to $1.06M over 30 years at The University of Texas at Austin.