Report card

Fort Worth's TCU earns pomp and prestige on new list of top Texas schools

Horned Frogs are cool.

Back-to-school time is a fine time for new college rankings, and — oh look, here they are.

Neighborhood review site Niche.com has just released this year's college rankings, which rely on U.S. Department of Education data coupled with reviews from current students, alumni, and parents to judge American colleges on 12 factors, including academics, campus, dorm life, and professors.

In results that look strikingly similar to last year's list, three Dallas-Fort Worth universities have made the grade among top 10 Texas schools this year.

Southern Methodist University came in at No. 4, Fort Worth's Texas Christian University ranked No. 6, and University of Texas — Dallas just barely made the cut, at No. 10.

Once again, Houston's Rice University was named the best school in Texas (and seventh best in the United States). The complete top 10 in Texas looks like this:

Rice University
University of Texas — Austin
Texas A&M University
Southern Methodist University
Trinity University
Texas Christian University
Baylor University
LeTourneau University
Texas Tech University
University of Texas — Dallas

TCU earned high marks nationally in some very specific categories, such as Best Christian Colleges in America ranking (No. 8 out of 364), and No. 11 for Best College Campuses (out of 1,419). Complete rankings here.

SMU ranked No. 5 in Best Christian Colleges in America but also Top Party Schools in America (No. 22 of 1,612). Go figure. Complete rankings are here.

UTD scored highest in the categories of Best Colleges for Information Technology in America (No. 10 of 238) and Best Colleges for Accounting and Finance (No. 41 of 814). Complete rankings here.

Further down the best-in-Texas list, University of North Texas in Denton came in at No. 16, University of Texas at Arlington snagged No. 22, Texas Woman's University in Denton ranked No. 32, Dallas Baptist University landed at No. 33, and Fort Worth's Texas Wesleyan ranked No. 41.

Another list of interest for incoming freshmen is Niche’s ranking of 2022 Colleges with the Best Student Life in Texas. Top-ranked colleges have a positive, fun, and friendly student culture and a vibrant campus community, per Niche. No surprise here, both TCU and SMU made the top-5 list:

University of Texas - Austin
Rice University
Texas A&M University
Texas Christian University
Southern Methodist University

Which are the best universities in the country this year? Here’s Niche.com’s new report card for the country’s 10 best colleges, which features just one in Texas:

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
Stanford University, Palo Alto, California
Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Rice University
Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
Dartmouth College

lists colleges bests rankings

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."