Colleges in Houston
Houston, located in the seat of Harris County, is the most populous city in the state of Texas, and claims the same in the entire southern US. Founded in 1836 and incorporated in 1837, Houston grew as a regional trading center for the rest of the century and now has a broad economy in energy—through oil and natural gas—as well as manufacturing, healthcare, and, of course, aeronautics.
Houston has four state universities located within its city limits, one of which is Texas Southern University, an historical black university that’s considered one of the largest and most comprehensive in the US. The flagship institution for the University of Houston is, as expected, located in its namesake city, and hosts more than 40,000 students on its 667-acre campus. There are also two stand-alone institutions in the UH System in Houston, Clear Lake and Downtown, and two ABA-accredited law schools, the UH Law Center and Thurgood Marshall School of Law at TSU.
Home to the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the world, the city also has a number of medical schools and colleges, many within the dense triangle that consists of more than 50 not-for-profit medical-related institutions. The McGovern Medical School and the Baylor College of Medicine are among the throng, as well as the pharmacy schools from both TSU and UH, a school of optometry, and Prairie View A&M University’s nursing school.
The most selective university in the state, and most selective in the US, Rice University was founded in Houston in 1912. The only Catholic institution in the city is the University of St. Thomas, although there are other religious universities, such as the Houston Baptist University. The Houston Community College System serves the city, but there are campuses from the Lone Star College System, among others, serving sections of the more than 2.3 million living in the area.
An automobile-dependent city, Houston has an extensive freeway system in conjunction with limited-access highways. Public transport is handled by the METRO and features 75 local routes, and Amtrak provides service to Houston thrice weekly. The area has several airports, all of which are part of the Houston Airport System.
