College Azimuth

Research brief & institution hub

The University of Texas at El Paso

TXLarge public institution · Overall rank #39 nationally

Data snapshot Updated

Azimuth ranks The University of Texas at El Paso #39 nationally.

Who it’s a good fit for

The University of Texas at El Paso is a public university in El Paso, Texas, where mobility is among the highest we track and the degree mix is led by Business, Health Professions, and Engineering. Most graduates are estimated to go into jobs rather than on to further study.

Graduates out-earn what predicts for students like them. The model attributes more of that to a remainder it does not explain than to the factors it measures — field of study, enrollment and the local labor market.

Students who arrive with Pell Grants finish below the rate for the entering cohort as a whole. Access is among the highest we track and affordability is among the highest we track, covering both ends of the income scale.

The admission rate is above the median for comparable institutions, and the largest programs are not the best-paid ones. A student drawn to Nursing or Biology should go in knowing that the highest earnings are in smaller programs like Computer and Information Sciences.

UTEP at a glance

Admissions and outcomes

Admission rate[1]
99.9%
Six-year completion[2]
50.2%
Four-year earnings[3]
$58,771

Cost and family borrowing

Average annual net price · $48–75K family income[6]
$10,120
Median student debt[4]
$18,000
Median Parent PLUS debt[7]
$11,916

UTEP rankings: how Azimuth assesses value[5]

The University of Texas at El Paso, a public university in El Paso, Texas, enrolls 21,005 undergraduates. It sits near the top of the Azimuth ranking among nonprofit four-year institutions (97th percentile).

The University of Texas at El Paso accepts 99.9% of applicants, a share far above the median of 78.1% at comparable institutions (same type and size). The peer median is the middle value for comparable institutions (same type and size).

Among full-time first-year students, 78.9% return for a second year, against a peer median of 83.1%. The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 50.2%, against a peer median of 65.0%.

An estimated 43.2% of undergraduates arrive as transfers or part-time students, so that graduation rate describes a minority of the people who study here. The first-time full-time cohort, the group tracked for that rate, is only part of the student body.

Mobility is the strongest of the four (97th percentile), with access (96th) and affordability (94th) close behind. Return is the weakest (60th percentile), and the gap between the top and bottom is wide, so the pillars are uneven.

Azimuth ranks The University of Texas at El Paso #39 among 1,467 nonprofit four-year institutions. The strongest pillar is mobility, at the 97th percentile, followed by access at the 96th percentile and affordability at the 94th percentile. The return pillar sits at the 60th percentile, the weakest of the four.

61.6% of undergraduates at The University of Texas at El Paso receive Pell Grants. Among enrolled students who submitted standardized tests, the middle 50% of SAT scores fell between 860 and 1,080, while the middle 50% of ACT scores fell between 17 and 22.

For access, Azimuth places the university at #54 among nonprofit four-year institutions. Pell recipients in the first-time full-time cohort complete at 42.9%, a figure that trails the overall cohort rate by 7.3 percentage points.

For mobility, the university sits at #39 of nonprofit four-year institutions. Graduates earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students, an outcome that coincides with its mobility standing.

How value-added outcomes are assessed · How to interpret program rankings

UTEP rankings in context
GeographyRank
National#39
Texas#7
South#12

Azimuth overall value rankings within each geographic comparison group.

National pillar percentiles

Economic mobility
National percentile: 97
Access & reach
National percentile: 96
Affordability
National percentile: 94
Return on investment
National percentile: 60

Top-ranked majors

  1. Music#9
  2. Security Science and Technology#22
  3. Microbiological Sciences and Immunology#39

This school’s three highest-ranked programs nationally. Each rank compares bachelor’s programs in the same field; field sizes differ.

Explore major rankings

01 / UTEP briefing

UTEP cost & financial aid[6][7]

The University of Texas at El Paso publishes a cost of attendance of $19,836, an average. In-state tuition and fees are $9,744, and room and board are $10,864.

Out-of-state students face tuition and fees of $25,502. After financial aid, the average net price for aid recipients drops to $9,403, a savings of $10,433 against the sticker price.

That is below the peer median of $15,634 for comparable institutions (same type and size) by $6,231. Azimuth ranks the university #92 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions.

For the average aid recipient, aid covers about 53% of the published cost. Families in the lowest income band see an average net price of $7,863, while those in the highest band average $18,282.

The University of Texas at El Paso publishes a cost of attendance of $19,836, an average across living arrangements. In-state tuition is $9,744 and out-of-state tuition is $25,502.

For families earning under $30,000, the average net price is $7,863. Families in the $48,001–$75,000 band see an average net price of $10,120, and for families earning over $110,000 the average net price is $18,282.

Azimuth ranks the university #92 for affordability among nonprofit four-year institutions. Financial aid reduces the sticker price by an average of $10,433, bringing the average net price across all aid recipients to $9,403.

That figure is below the peer median of $15,634 for comparable institutions (same type and size) by $6,231. The published in-state tuition is $9,744, and room and board adds $10,864.

The median federal student debt at completion is $18,000, which is below the peer median of $20,076 for comparable institutions (same type and size) by $2,076. About 53.7% of federal aid recipients borrow federal loans.

The median Parent PLUS borrowing stands at $11,916. If repaid over ten years, the estimated monthly payment for a graduate with the median federal debt is $205.

Your family income

Choose a household income range to see estimated net price.

Reported average annual net price · $48–75K$10,120

After grants and scholarships. Your aid offer may differ.

Averages within each income band; individual aid packages vary.

Borrowing and repayment at UTEP

53.7% of federal aid recipients take federal loans. Borrowers who complete leave with a median of $18,000 in federal student debt, $2,076 below the $20,076 median for comparable institutions (same type and size).

If repaid over ten years, that debt corresponds to an estimated payment of $205 a month. Parents who borrow through the separate Parent PLUS program hold a median of $11,916.

In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported that 43% of its 2,320 bachelor's graduates held federal loans, with an average cumulative federal principal of $18,295 per federal borrower.

The investment picture at The University of Texas at El Paso is shaped by earnings that outpace the model's expectation and debt that runs below the median for comparable institutions. Four years after completion, federally aided graduates who are working and not enrolled earn a median of $58,771, at the 46th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions.

Graduates earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students, an outcome that sits at the 89th percentile. Earnings scenarios, estimated from the university's program mix, range from $43,822 in a downside case to $89,891 in an upside case, with a typical outcome of $58,771.

For borrowers who finish, the median federal student debt is $18,000. That figure is $2,076 below the median for comparable institutions (same type and size) and corresponds to an estimated payment of $205 a month if repaid over ten years.

Median Parent PLUS borrowing, a separate parent-borrower population, is $11,916. The estimated monthly student payment if repaid over ten years is $205.

How Financial GPS measures payment burden · The four risk-and-reward zones

Financial GPS

What does repayment look like?

Institution median student debt
$18,000
Institution Parent PLUS debt
$11,916

Federal loans only; private or institutional loans aren’t included.

Estimated student payment · monthly
$205/mo
Estimated Parent PLUS payment · monthly
$151/mo

Payments use school-wide median balances, not a specific major’s.

Payment assumptions

Payments are 10-year standard payments on the median balance, before loan fees, used as a yardstick. Rates for newly issued loans may differ, and loans made after July 1, 2026 can repay over a longer term; existing loans keep their original fixed rates.

Explore your own numbers in Financial GPS
Read the full cost & aid brief

02 / UTEP briefing

UTEP career outcomes & earnings[3][8][9]

Four years after completing a degree, federally aided graduates who are working and not enrolled earn a median of $58,771. That is at the 46th percentile nationally, and $6,839 below the $65,610 median for comparable institutions (same type and size).

Graduates earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students. That places the gap at the 89th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions.

The part the model attributes to the factors it measures adds $4,022. The part it attributes to a remainder it does not explain adds $9,550. Azimuth places the university at the 60th percentile for return.

Among 4,428 federally aided completers who are working and not enrolled, the median four years after completion for The University of Texas at El Paso is $58,771. The median is below that of comparable institutions (same type and size) by $6,839.

The peer median is $65,610, placing the university in the 46th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. For earnings beyond expectations, the university ranks in the 89th percentile nationally, as its graduates earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students.

Earnings scenarios based on the university's program mix span from $43,822 on the downside to $89,891 on the upside, with a typical scenario of $58,771. Graduate-school continuation is estimated at 30.1% of programs' graduates, a figure the model derives from program mix rather than observed enrollment.

Four years after completion, graduates of The University of Texas at El Paso earn a median of $58,771, which places the university in the 46th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. That figure is below the median of $65,610 for comparable institutions (same type and size), a gap of $6,839.

Graduates earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students, a result in the 89th percentile. The part the model attributes to the factors it measures (field of study, enrollment and the local labor market) adds $4,022.

The part it attributes to a remainder it does not explain adds $9,550. Within the measured factors, the STEM component adds $3,004.

Azimuth ranks the university #588 for return. Earnings scenarios grounded in the program mix show a downside of $43,822 and an upside of $89,891.

The largest program, Nursing, awarded 376 degrees and shows median earnings of $89,077 four years after completion, ranking #115 nationally in its field according to Azimuth. Computer and Information Sciences, the highest-earning program, awarded 165 degrees and its completers earn a median of $103,286, or 1.12x the national median for the field.

Earnings vary considerably with field of study. Earnings scenarios for the university's program mix range from a downside of $43,822 to an upside of $89,891 four years after completion.

Computer and Information Sciences graduates earn a median of $103,286, the highest among the university's programs, while Electrical Engineering graduates earn $94,122. The largest program, Nursing, with 376 degrees awarded, shows median earnings of $89,077.

Graduates of The University of Texas at El Paso earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students. The median federal student debt for borrowers who complete a degree is $18,000, which is below the peer median of $20,076 for comparable institutions (same type and size).

If repaid over ten years, the median federal debt yields an estimated monthly obligation of $205. Parent PLUS borrowers, a separate population, carry a median of $11,916.

The average net price for aid recipients is $9,403, below the peer median of $15,634 for comparable institutions. For families earning under $30,000, the average net price falls to $7,863; across all income bands, the spread between the lowest and highest averages is $10,419. Aid covers about 53% of the published cost for the average aid recipient.

What explains value-added earnings?
Program & institutional factors The part attributed to observed institutional characteristics.
+$4,022
Unexplained remainder What remains after the model’s observed factors.
+$9,550
Total modeled value added The modeled difference from expected earnings.
+$13,572

These are statistical model components, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

Read the full outcomes brief

03 / UTEP briefing

UTEP acceptance rate & admissions[1][10][11]

The University of Texas at El Paso admitted 99.9% of applicants. The median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size) sits well below that figure.

SAT: approximate enrolled-student range
Admission rate
99.9%
Approximate lower endpoint
860
Reported average
962
Approximate upper endpoint
1080

Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.

Read the full admissions brief

04 / UTEP briefing

What are the largest majors at UTEP?[12]

The University of Texas at El Paso awards bachelor's degrees across 36 fields with published four-year earnings, and Azimuth ranks 29 of them nationally. The highest-earning program, Computer and Information Sciences, shows a median of $103,286 four years after completion, alongside 165 degrees awarded.

Electrical Engineering follows at $94,122 with 66 degrees awarded. Nursing, the university's largest program with 376 degrees awarded, reaches a median of $89,077 and holds an Azimuth national rank of #115.

Mechanical Engineering reports $88,393 on 199 degrees awarded. In contrast, Biology and Psychology show more moderate medians of $49,396 and $42,190, respectively, on 297 and 282 degrees awarded.

Azimuth ranks 29 bachelor's programs at The University of Texas at El Paso. The highest-earning program is Computer and Information Sciences, where graduates earn a median of $103,286 four years after completion.

Electrical Engineering and Metallurgical Engineering also show strong medians, at $94,122 and $89,131 respectively.

The University of Texas at El Paso awards bachelor's degrees across a broad set of fields, with the largest shares in Business at 14.7% of degrees awarded, Health Professions at 13.4%, and Engineering at 11.0%. Azimuth ranks 29 of its programs nationally, while 36 programs have published four-year earnings data.

The largest single program is Nursing, which awards 376 degrees a year, followed by Biology at 297 degrees awarded and Criminal Justice at 283 degrees awarded. The highest-earning program is Computer and Information Sciences, where graduates earn a median of $103,286 four years after completion, from 165 degrees awarded.

Electrical Engineering follows at $94,122, with 66 degrees awarded. Nursing, the largest program, posts a median of $89,077 and ranks #9 in Texas within its field.

Biology, the second-largest program, has median earnings of $49,396. Security Science and Technology ranks #22 nationally and #2 in Texas within its field.

The pattern is one of strength concentrated in a few technical and health-related fields, while the largest programs by degrees awarded show a wider spread in earnings. Nursing and several engineering programs post medians near the top of the range, while Biology, Criminal Justice, and Psychology sit near $42,190. Across all fields, 28.2% of degrees awarded are in STEM.

Four-year earnings · six largest reported fields
Registered Nursing, Nursing Administration, Nursing Research and Clinical Nursing 376 degrees awarded
$89,077
Biology, General 297 degrees awarded
$49,396
Criminal Justice and Corrections 283 degrees awarded
$47,681
Psychology, General 282 degrees awarded
$42,190
Education, General 202 degrees awarded
Too few graduates to report
Mechanical Engineering 199 degrees awarded
$88,393

Fields selected by reported completions. Counts describe credentials awarded, not unique students or the earnings sample. Bars show median four-year earnings.

Read the full majors brief

05 / UTEP briefing

How does UTEP serve students from different backgrounds?

Azimuth ranks the mobility pillar of The University of Texas at El Paso in the 97th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 50.2%, while Pell recipients complete at a rate of 42.9% — below the overall rate by 7.3 percentage points.

Graduates earn about $13,572 more than the model expects for similar students, a result that lands in the 89th percentile nationally.

Azimuth places the access pillar of The University of Texas at El Paso in the 96th percentile among nonprofit four-year institutions. The public university admits 99.9% of applicants and enrolls 21,005 undergraduates.

Pell Grant recipients make up 61.6% of the undergraduate body, and an estimated 43.2% of students arrive as transfers or part-time students.

06 / UTEP briefing

What colleges are similar to UTEP?[15]

Azimuth groups alternatives by admissions, location, cost and earnings, then orders candidates within each group. Peer earnings use the matched four-year cohort. How matching works.

A shortlist for different decisions

Choose a row to compare the figures with UTEP.

Admissions peerTexas A&M University-San Antonio92.8% admitted
Comparison with UTEP
MeasureUTEPTexas A&M University-San Antonio
Peer earnings · 4 years$58,771$55,112-$3,659 vs UTEP
Average annual net price$9,403$11,196+$1,793 vs UTEP · higher cost
Admission rate99.9%92.8%
Explore Texas A&M University-San Antonio →
Nearby alternativeNew Mexico State University-Main CampusNearby option · NM
Comparison with UTEP
MeasureUTEPNew Mexico State University-Main Campus
Peer earnings · 4 years$58,771$54,874-$3,897 vs UTEP
Average annual net price$9,403$8,889-$514 vs UTEP · lower cost
Admission rate99.9%89.0%
Explore New Mexico State University-Main Campus →
Higher-earnings alternativeCalifornia State University-East Bay$72,596 earnings
Comparison with UTEP
MeasureUTEPCalifornia State University-East Bay
Peer earnings · 4 years$58,771$72,596+$13,825 vs UTEP
Average annual net price$9,403$9,320-$83 vs UTEP · lower cost
Admission rate99.9%97.4%
Explore California State University-East Bay →
Lower-cost alternativeTrinity International University-Illinois$2,835 average net price
Comparison with UTEP
MeasureUTEPTrinity International University-Illinois
Peer earnings · 4 years$58,771$51,985-$6,786 vs UTEP
Average annual net price$9,403$2,835-$6,568 vs UTEP · lower cost
Admission rate99.9%100.0%
Similar profileNorthern Arizona UniversityMatched across several measures
Comparison with UTEP
MeasureUTEPNorthern Arizona University
Peer earnings · 4 years$58,771$60,629+$1,858 vs UTEP
Average annual net price$9,403$14,158+$4,755 vs UTEP · higher cost
Admission rate99.9%89.6%
Explore Northern Arizona University →

Each school is the first-ranked match in its category, not a recommendation across every measure. The same college may lead more than one category. Figures use the matching snapshot; earnings reflect the matched four-year cohort. — means unavailable.

Read the full similar schools brief

Data scope & methodology

Structured payloads generated Governed hub narrative Governed spoke corpus

Four-year earnings describe cohorts of completers. Figures for other horizons describe different cohorts and are not joined into a career-growth projection.

Azimuth's overall rank and pillar percentiles come from the school profile. Absolute pillar ranks, city, enrollment and official-site links are shown only when structured data supplies them.

Detailed earnings, cost, admissions and program values come from the endpoint responsible for each measure. Missing values are not replaced with zero. Value-added estimates are model associations, not causal effects.

Figures are refreshed with each data release, at most a quarter apart. The underlying source dates can be earlier than the release.

Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.

Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, founder of College Azimuth.

Read the ranking methodology, data definitions and limitations · About College Azimuth

Read the analysis behind value-added earnings and the change to four-year graduate earnings. These articles are published on collegeazimuth.com.

Data notes & source fields

Scorecard field codes identify the underlying measure; Azimuth-derived values are labeled separately. Snapshot dates are not measurement years. Source populations and reporting periods differ across measures. Field definitions are in the U.S. Department of Education · College Scorecard documentation; notes with a different source link it below.

  1. Admission rate. Reported applicants admitted; not a transfer-specific or individual admission probability.

    Source fields: ADM_RATE

  2. Six-year completion. First-time, full-time students completing at the institution within 150% of normal time, typically six years for a bachelor’s degree.

    Source fields: C150_4

  3. Four-year institutional earnings. Median earnings of graduates in the reported cohort who are working and not enrolled, four years after completion.

    Source fields: MD_EARN_WNE_4YR

  4. Median federal student debt. Federal student-loan debt among completers in the reported borrowing cohort. Excludes Parent PLUS and is not total debt across all students.

    Source fields: GRAD_DEBT_MDN

  5. National, regional and state ranks; pillar percentiles; major ranks. Derived scores within the stated eligible comparison set, not raw Scorecard fields. Major ranks compare institutions within a field; their denominators differ.

    Source fields: Azimuth rankings

    College Azimuth · Ranking methodology

  6. Annual net price by family income. Average annual cost after grants and scholarships for the eligible first-time, full-time aid-recipient cohort. Public-school figures reflect in-state tuition. Includes living costs; these are averages, not medians or individual offers.

    Source fields: NPT4_PUB/PRIV; NPT41_PUB/PRIV through NPT45_PUB/PRIV

  7. Parent PLUS debt, payments and GPS illustration. Stored payments use Financial GPS loan and repayment assumptions. The adjustable spectrum applies the published framework to annual student payments divided by earnings minus an expense allowance; its initial allowance is 150% of the federal poverty guideline for one person, for the year the API serves. It is an illustration rather than a school rating. The parent table is the 10-year payment on the median Parent PLUS as a share of household income above 200% of the guideline for a household of three: under 6% Safe, 6–10% Caution, over 10% High pressure. Parent PLUS uses the completer median where available, otherwise the all-borrower median; these describe different borrowing populations.

    Source fields: PLUS_DEBT_ALL_COMP_MD; fallback PLUS_DEBT_ALL_MD; Azimuth Financial GPS calculations

    College Azimuth · Financial GPS methodology

  8. Downside and upside earnings; yellow band. The band spans the modeled lower and higher scenarios. It is not the P25–P75 interval for individual graduates. The median marker is the separately reported institutional median.

    Source fields: Azimuth modeled program-mix scenarios

    College Azimuth · Earnings scenario methodology

  9. Value added and its components. Observed-factor attribution plus the unexplained remainder equals total modeled value added. These are associations, not proven causal effects; the remainder is not a direct measure of teaching quality.

    Source fields: Azimuth statistical model

    College Azimuth · Value-added methodology

  10. SAT score range and reported midpoint. Reported scores of enrolled score-submitters, not admission cutoffs. The midpoint field is not necessarily the middle of the displayed range.

    Source fields: SATVR25 + SATMT25; SATVR75 + SATMT75; SAT_AVG

  11. First-year retention. Retention of the reported full-time cohort at four-year institutions.

    Source fields: RET_FT4

  12. Program earnings, completion counts and major-mix dots. Included bachelor’s programs have at least five reported completions. Counts are aggregated credentials, not unique people or an earnings sample. Major-mix dots group those counts by field of study; excluded programs are not zero activity.

    Source fields: EARN_MDN_4YR; IPEDSCOUNT1; CIPCODE

    College Scorecard · Field-of-study technical documentation

  13. Pell recipients. Share of undergraduates receiving a Pell Grant in the reported academic year.

    Source fields: PCTPELL

  14. Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group. This is not an observed transfer-in rate. It includes part-time entrants and other entering-student attendance patterns.

    Source fields: 1 − PFTFTUG1_EF

  15. Peer earnings and signed differences. Differences are peer minus this school, from the same matching snapshot. A positive earnings difference does not mean the peer is better on every measure.

    Source fields: Azimuth peer model using MD_EARN_WNE_4YR

    College Azimuth · Comparison methodology

How to interpret program rankings