College ROI

2 North Texas universities rank among state's 10 best bang-for-your-buck colleges

UNT is named the ninth best collegiate value in Texas.

By one measure, earning a degree at the University of Texas at Dallas or University of North Texas is one of the smartest moves in the Lone Star State.

In its eighth annual ranking of colleges and university that give students the best return on their educational investment, personal finance website SmartAsset places UT Dallas (in Richardson) at No. 3 in Texas and No. 71 in the U.S. It ranks University of North Texas (in Denton) at No. 9 in Texas and No. 164 in the U.S.

They were the only two North Texas schools to make the Texas top 10.

Rice University in Houston repeats at No. 1 in Texas and No. 10 in the U.S., and it was the only Texas school to break into the national top 10.

To determine the best-value colleges and universities in each state, SmartAsset crunched data in these categories: scholarships and grants, starting salary for new graduates, tuition, living costs, and retention rate.

At UT Dallas, the numbers break down like this:

College tuition: $13,034
Student living costs: $16,252
Average scholarships and grants: $12,033
Average starting salary after graduation: $63,100
Student retention rate: 90 percent

And at UNT, this is the breakdown:

College tuition: $10,852
Student living costs: $13,860
Average scholarships and grants: $8,857
Average starting salary after graduation: $54,200
Student retention rate: 85 percent

Compare those numbers to top-ranked Rice: While the tuition ($47,350) and student living costs ($17,800) at Rice are the highest among the top 10 Texas schools on the list, the average amount of scholarships and grants ($43,615), average starting salary ($77,900), and retention rate (97 percent) also are among the highest.

According to Rice, tuition, fees, on-campus room and board, books, and personal expenses for the 2022-23 academic year add up to $74,110. That figure, which excludes financial aid, applies to a full-time, degree-seeking student living on campus.

Other Texas schools in the state’s top 10 are:

University of Texas at Austin, No. 2.
Prairie View A&M University, No. 4.
University of Houston, No. 5.
Texas A&M University-College Station, No. 6.
Texas Tech University in Lubbock, No. 7.
LeTourneau University in Longview, No. 8.
Texas State University in San Marcos, No. 10.

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Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."