Undergraduate Enrollment

16,976

Points of Distinction

• Distinguished alumni include NASA astronaut John “Danny” Olivas, newsman Sam Donaldson, and journalist Ruben Salazar
• Glory Road, a 2006 film, is based on UTEP’s 1966 NCAA championship basketball team
• Nine current and former Miner track and field athletes competed in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games

Set against the stunning backdrop of the Franklin Mountains, the University of Texas at El Paso lies in the Chihuahuan Desert at the heart of the U.S.-Mexico border. UTEP is among Texas’s emerging tier-one research universities, offering both undergraduate and graduate students countless hands-on research opportunities. A Hispanic-serving institution, UTEP enrolls more than 20,400 students, including about 17,000 undergraduates, and most are first-generation college students. The university offers 81 bachelor’s degrees (plus 70 master’s and 16 doctoral degrees) and has been ranked among the nation’s top schools in awarding undergraduate degrees to Hispanics.

UTEP’s unusual tiered architecture was inspired by Bhutanese monasteries featured in a National Geographic article in the early 1900s, a building tradition still followed on the 366-acre campus. In 2008 the university celebrated ground breakings and grand openings of numerous buildings, including a health sciences/nursing complex, a bioscience research center, a chemistry/computer science building, a bookstore, and a basketball practice facility.

Student life offers boundless entertainment and civic engagement activities, including 170 student organizations, headliner concerts and artistic exhibitions, and plenty of places to hang out around campus. UTEP’s athletic teams, including its record-setting football and track teams, compete in Conference USA (NCAA Division I). The university’s basketball team is known for its national and conference championship titles. Outside the classroom students take advantage of the region’s nightlife, music, theater, and recreation.