This Houston university tops list of highest starting salaries for Texas grads

As if Rice University needed more bragging rights, a new study calculates that students who attend Houston's vaunted Ivy League of the South have the highest initial earning potential among Texas graduates.

Financial website SmartAsset ranked the top 10 Texas colleges where students earn the best average starting salaries upon graduation. Rice tops the list, with students earning an average of $65,700 in their first job out of school.

The salary ranking is part of a larger SmartAsset study that looked at five factors (tuition, student living costs, scholarship and grant offerings, retention rate, and starting salary) to determine the best value colleges and universities. Rice also comes in No. 1 on that list. Rice students pay an average of $42,253 tuition and $16,000 in living costs; that's offset by an average of $36,192 in scholarships and grants.

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