The oldest Texas Methodist college is Southwestern University, located in Georgetown. Founded in 1840 at the request of Col. William B. Travis, the college offers a liberal arts education. "The Princeton Review" rated Southwestern as one of the best colleges values in 2008 and as one of the best 368 colleges in 2009, according to the Southwestern website.
Lon Morris College remains the only two-year Methodist college west of the Mississippi River and the oldest two-year college in the state. Founded in 1854 as the New Danville Masonic Female Academy in Kilgore, the school moved to Jacksonville in 1894. The college offers a predominately liberal arts education. Famous performing artist graduates of the college include Sandy Duncan, Neil McCoy and Tommy Tune.
Wiley College, located in Marshall, formed as the first black college west of the Mississippi in 1873. The history of this college shines with excellence in debate, football, basketball, music and education. Denzel Washington directed "The Great Debaters," a 2007 movie about the school's 1935 debate victory over the University of Southern California, the national champions at the time.
Huston-Tillotson University opened its doors in Austin to freed slaves in 1875 as a merger between Samuel Huston College and Tillotson College. The school has two primary programs, the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Business and Technology. Huston-Tillotson also offers pre-college courses for local high school students interested in engineering, forensic science and mathematics.
Texas Wesleyan, located in Ft. Worth, offers liberal arts and sciences undergraduate and graduate degrees and two doctorate programs. Founded in 1890, the college was then known as Polytechnic College. The college became a women's college in 1914 after the founding of Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Twenty years later, the school readmitted men to remain solvent. The college added its first graduate program in the 1970s.
The Methodist Church founded Southern Methodist University (SMU), located in Dallas, in 1911. SMU is home to Perkins School of Theology, the only Methodist seminary located in Texas and educates many of the ministers serving in the area. SMU boasts a tradition of academic excellence, including Cox School of Business and Meadows School of the Arts, and was named in Parade Magazine's 2010 College A-List.
Abileen serves as home to McMurray University, founded in 1923. The school offers undergraduate degrees in natural and social sciences, education, humanities, fine arts, business and nursing. The student body enrollment averages about 1,400 and the school offers a small town atmosphere.