The University of North Texas announced Wednesday that it will cover full tuition and mandatory fees for incoming freshmen from Texas families earning $100,000 or less starting in fall 2026.
The move puts UNT among a growing number of Texas universities that have launched so-called promise programs, which aim to expand access to higher education by helping students limit debt to earn a degree.
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UNT’s program will cover tuition and fees for freshmen pursuing their first bachelor’s degree at the Denton-based university. The benefit will apply for up to four years, or eight consecutive semesters. University officials said more than 3,500 incoming freshmen could be eligible for the program in its first year.
According to the university’s tuition estimator, a full-time, in-state undergraduate taking 12 credit hours can pay roughly $6,000 per semester in tuition and mandatory fees, depending on the major.
In addition to the income cap set by the university, eligible students must rank in the top 25% of their high school class or qualify for a federal Pell Grant.
Qualifying students will be automatically considered for the program without submitting a separate application beyond completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid by Feb. 15, 2026. The university encourages students to apply for admission and submit their FAFSA by the end of January to allow time for processing.
Every public university system in Texas has rolled out a tuition promise or guarantee program in recent years, though the scope, eligibility rules and funding mechanisms vary.
For example, the University of Texas System’s Promise Plus initiative grew out of a UT-Austin endowment launched in 2019. It initially covered tuition and fees for in-state undergraduates from families earning up to $65,000. In 2022, UT regents expanded it to students at all nine of the system’s academic institutions, and in 2024 raised the eligibility threshold to include families earning up to $100,000. Unlike other campus-based programs, the UT System’s initiative is not limited to incoming freshmen.
Other programs include the University of Houston’s Cougar Promise and Texas State University’s Bobcat Promise, which use a mix of federal, state and institutional aid to cover full tuition and fees for eligible students from middle- to low-income households. Those programs also primarily rely on income-based eligibility and are limited to incoming freshmen, but the schools do not require students to be a certain class rank.
It was not immediately clear why UNT included high school class rank as an eligibility requirement or whether the program will be funded through institutional dollars, philanthropy or another source.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: University of Houston, University of North Texas and University of Texas System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.