If you can afford to attend a small private univer...

If you can afford to attend a small private university, Southern Methodist University should be on your list of places to consider. The campus itself is beautiful with well-manicured landscaping. It's worth a night-time visit just to see the downtown Dallas skyline from the campus. The faculty is top caliber. However, this is not the place to go if you're on a limited budget, i.e. there's unlikely to be a positive return on your investment in the tuition if you have to borrow most of the funds to attend as student loans.