Texas has the largest emergency management workforce in the country. 1210 emergency
management directors work here, roughly 9.0% of everyone doing the job nationally and
more than any other state, earning a median of $93,570 against
$93,330 across the country. If you want to work in this field and stay
near where you studied, Texas gives you better odds than anywhere else.
The ranking itself works differently here than in other states. Every one of the seven
emergency management programs in Texas is public, and in-state tuition runs from
$4,495 to $8,319, a total spread of $3,824. That is small enough
that cost barely separates these programs. What does separate them is completion: graduation
rates run from 21% to 61%. In Florida you are weighing a tenfold price
difference. In Texas you are weighing whether you will finish.
All 7 Bachelor's In Emergency Management Programs In Texas, Ranked
Scored on graduation rate, cost, delivery, selectivity and how directly the degree targets
emergency management. Full weighting on the methodology page.
Emergency management programs in Texas ranked by score
#
School
City
In-state tuition
Graduation rate
Online
Score
1
West Texas A & M University
Canyon
$6,372
55%
Yes
66.5
2
Sam Houston State University
Huntsville
$5,856
55%
Yes
65.1
3
University of North Texas
Denton
$8,319
61%
No
64.1
4
Angelo State University
San Angelo
$4,495
44%
Yes
63
5
Lone Star College System
The Woodlands
$5,976
21%
No
55.5
6
Sul Ross State University
Alpine
$5,419
30%
Yes
55.2
7
Texas Southern University
Houston
$6,941
22%
No
47.4
1
Emergency Management B.A./B.S.
West Texas A & M University
Canyon, Texas
Online
West Texas A&M offers three versions of this degree, and picking the wrong one costs you credit: only the BAAS awards credit for prior military and vocational training.
The Emergency Management Administration degree runs on campus or fully online through the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice. What makes WTAMU worth a careful look is the three-way split. The BA and BS are traditional undergraduate degrees that expect no prior experience in the field, and importantly, they do not award credit for existing vocational, technical or military coursework. The BAAS requires that prior training, and WTAMU says most students in it are practitioners already working in the field.
That distinction is the single most consequential thing on this page for anyone arriving from the fire service or the military, because choosing the BA or BS means leaving credit on the table. WTAMU also runs Texas Firefighter Tuition Waivers. The program director is Dr. Justin Moeller, and the degree sits alongside the department's Master of Public Administration for anyone planning to continue.
BA, BS and BAAS versions with different credit rules
Only the BAAS credits prior military and vocational training
Sam Houston State runs the degree fully online in two versions, a BA and a BS, and the only difference between them is whether you add a foreign language or extra social science.
The Homeland Security Studies degree sits in SHSU's College of Criminal Justice and is delivered online over four years. The curriculum is deliberately broad: counterterrorism, cybersecurity, emergency management, strategic communications, risk assessment, critical infrastructure protection, intelligence, border security, aviation and maritime security, risk and crisis communications, pandemic management, and defense support for civil authorities.
The BA and BS split is worth understanding before you apply, because it is the main choice you make here. The BS requires additional hours in a social science such as psychology, sociology, political science or communication studies. The BA requires additional hours in a foreign language, with Spanish, French and American Sign Language named. Everything else is the same. SHSU describes the program's aim as producing thinkers, analysts, managers and leaders with both the theory and the applied side, and its Department of Security Studies faculty include people working in government agencies and think tanks.
Fully online, four years
BA adds a foreign language, BS adds social science
UNT calls this the nation's first Bachelor of Science in Emergency Administration and Planning, and it runs an Emergency Operations Center lab plus an award-winning IAEM student chapter.
The degree is 120 credit hours over four years, taught on campus by the Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science in the College of Public Affairs and Health Sciences. The named coursework is more academically serious than most on this list: Principles of Emergency Management, Disaster Response and Recovery, Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness, Social Vulnerability in Disasters, Terrorism and Emergency Management, and a course on Images of Disasters in Film and Media examining how media portrayals depart from scientific understanding.
The faculty credentials are the differentiator. UNT states its instructors have worked in emergency management for local governments, FEMA, the EPA and private-sector corporations, and have conducted disaster research on earthquakes in Haiti, Turkey and Taiwan, floods in Thailand, and Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Harvey. The department has earned national awards from FEMA's Higher Education Program, holds National Science Foundation research grants, and advises the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Students get hands-on work in large-scale field exercises and the EOC lab, and recent graduates are employed by FEMA, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and the Tarrant and Dallas county emergency management offices.
Nation's first BS in Emergency Administration and Planning
Dedicated Emergency Operations Center lab
Award-winning IAEM student chapter
Faculty with FEMA, EPA and local government experience
Angelo State is the border security specialist of the group, running a fully online degree covering trafficking, federal immigration law and chemical, biological and radiological hazards.
The B.S.S. in Border and Homeland Security is delivered entirely online, and the border focus is genuine rather than cosmetic. The degree plan covers terrorism and counter-terrorism, international trafficking, federal immigration laws, and chemical, biological and radiological hazards and responses. Angelo State points graduates toward the military, Border Patrol, emergency management and law enforcement at local, state and federal level.
There is a second track built specifically for service members. The B.B.S. variant is designed for students who already hold an associate degree from the Community College of the Air Force or who are on active duty, and it forms part of the AU-ABC program. Angelo State has been designated a Military Friendly School and Military Spouse Friendly School, and runs a VETS Center for education benefits. Students can also publish in the Journal of Homeland and National Security Perspectives, a student-led peer-reviewed publication, which is unusual at bachelor's level.
100% online, border security specialization
Separate track for Community College of the Air Force credit
Bachelor of Applied Science in Emergency Management
Lone Star College System
The Woodlands, Texas
On campus
Lone Star is an upper-division completion degree rather than a four-year one: you arrive with a qualifying associate degree and finish the last 60 credits here.
The Bachelor of Applied Science in Emergency Management is a two-year program at LSC-North Harris, designed for people who already hold an associate of applied science. Sixty credits come in with you and sixty are taken here, across named courses including Introduction to Emergency Management, Methods in Emergency Management, Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness, Infrastructure Systems and Disaster, Emergency Management Planning, Disaster Response and Recovery, Risk and Crisis Communications, and a capstone. Lone Star requires a minimum 75% pass rate in every course, which it aligns to the minimum in FEMA's National Preparedness Course Catalog.
The approved feeder degrees are wide, and that matters: emergency medical services, fire science technology, law enforcement, criminal justice, nursing, cybersecurity, GIS and others all qualify, with a 2.25 cumulative GPA. Read the graduation rate on this card with that structure in mind. The 21% figure is the institution-wide rate for a large community college system enrolling students on dozens of pathways, so it describes Lone Star as a whole rather than the completion odds of someone entering this bachelor's with an associate degree already finished.
Upper-division completion degree, 60 credits transfer in
Wide list of approved associate feeder degrees
75% minimum pass rate, aligned to FEMA course standards
Sul Ross runs its homeland security degree out of a combined Department of Homeland Security and Criminal Justice, with a master's and a border security certificate on the same ladder.
The BS in Homeland Security covers terrorism, disaster preparedness, crisis management and government operations, and Sul Ross states many courses are available online for working professionals and distance learners. The career list leans toward law enforcement and public land agencies rather than county emergency management: state highway patrol, municipal police, sheriffs' departments, US Customs and Border Protection, probation and parole, state parks and wildlife agencies, and the National Park Service.
The progression options are the practical draw. The department also runs a 36-credit non-thesis Master of Science in Homeland Security covering crisis and risk management, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and immigration policy, plus a Border Security and Management certificate and an international-track version of the bachelor's. At $5,419 in state it is among the cheapest routes into the field in Texas.
Many courses available online
36-credit non-thesis master's on the same ladder
Border Security and Management certificate
Careers aimed at federal and state law enforcement
Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Bachelor of Science
Texas Southern University
Houston, Texas
On campus
Texas Southern teaches coastal hazards and maritime risk assessment, which no other Texas program on this list does, and waives tuition for firefighters taking fire science coursework.
The BS in Emergency Management and Homeland Security totals 120 hours with 48 in the major, taught through the School of Public Affairs. The required core runs Introduction to Emergency Management, Natural Hazards, Technological Hazards, Principles and Practices of Hazard Mitigation, and Emergency Recovery, Response, Preparedness and Planning, alongside four homeland security courses covering terrorism, domestic and global terrorism, and the legal and political issues in the field. An internship is required, not optional.
The elective list is where the Gulf Coast location shows: Coastal Hazards Management, Maritime Risk Assessment and Management, Business Crisis and Continuity, Public Health in Emergency Management, Planning for Vulnerable Populations, Social Dimensions of Disasters, and GIS. Texas Southern also administers the state exemption that waives tuition and fees for firefighters taking approved fire science courses, which is worth checking against the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's approved list if you are already serving.
Coastal hazards and maritime risk assessment electives
Required internship
Tuition exemption for firefighters on approved fire science courses
Texas Emergency Management Degrees If You Already Work In Fire, EMS Or The Military
Texas is unusually well set up for people moving across from a uniformed service, and the
differences between these programs matter more than the rankings do. West Texas A&M runs
three versions of its degree, and only the BAAS awards credit for prior vocational, technical
or military coursework. Choosing its BA or BS instead means starting from scratch on training
you already hold. Texas Southern administers the state exemption that waives tuition and fees
for firefighters taking approved fire science courses. Lone Star's completion degree accepts
an emergency medical services, fire science technology or law enforcement associate as a
feeder and credits the full 60 lower-division hours.
Angelo State takes the same idea in a military direction. Alongside its standard online
degree it runs a variant built for students holding a Community College of the Air Force
associate or serving on active duty, delivered through the AU-ABC program.
What An Emergency Management Director Earns In Texas
Emergency management is the field and the degree, not a job title. The occupation the federal
government tracks against it is
emergency management director,
SOC 11-9161, and that is the code behind every wage figure in this section.
The Texas median is $93,570, $240 above the national figure. The bottom
10% earn $58,320 and the top 10% clear $163,820, with the middle half between
$69,920 and $130,620. The spread is wide, and in a state this large it
mostly tracks the difference between a metro county office and a rural one.
Volume is the real Texas advantage. With 1210 positions, ranked
1 nationally by employment, there are simply more jobs to move between
here than in any other state, which matters in an occupation of only
13,500 people nationally.
Full pay data by state.
Accreditation For Emergency Management Degrees In Texas
CAEMHSE accredits degrees in this field, but it is thinly held and not CHEA-recognized, so it will not narrow this list. What matters for all seven of these schools is
institutional accreditation, verifiable in the
Department of Education's database.
EMAP accredits government emergency management agencies rather than college degrees, and
FEMA's Higher Education Program maintains a listing that is recognition rather than accreditation.
Common Questions About Emergency Management Programs In Texas
How many emergency management programs are there in Texas?
Seven ranked bachelor's programs at 7 institutions, and every one of them is a public university or college system. That is unusual: most states mix public and private options, and Texas simply does not have a private program in this field that reports enough data to rank.
What is the cheapest emergency management degree in Texas?
Angelo State University at $4,495 a year, delivered fully online. The most expensive is UNT at $8,319, so the entire Texas range spans $3,824. For comparison, a single private program in another state can cost more than five times the top of that range.
Can you study emergency management online in Texas?
4 of the 7 ranked programs are online, and two more offer an online option alongside campus study. Angelo State and Sam Houston State both run fully online, and West Texas A&M offers its degree on campus or 100% online.
Which Texas emergency management program is best for firefighters?
Two are built for it in different ways. West Texas A&M runs a BAAS that awards credit for prior vocational, technical and military training, where its BA and BS versions do not, and offers Texas Firefighter Tuition Waivers. Texas Southern administers the state exemption waiving tuition and fees for firefighters taking approved fire science courses. Lone Star's completion degree also accepts a fire science technology associate as a feeder.
Do emergency management directors earn more in Texas?
Marginally. The Texas median is $93,570 against $93,330 nationally, $240 above. The more important number is volume: Texas employs 1210 emergency management directors, more than any other state, and roughly 9.0% of the national total.
Which program has the best graduation rate in Texas?
UNT at 61%. Rates across the seven run from 21% to 61%, and since tuition barely varies here, completion is the thing worth comparing hardest. Read the lower figures carefully though: they are institution-wide rates, and one of these programs is an upper-division completion degree where the institutional rate describes a different student population entirely.
Emergency Management Programs In Other States
62 of the 91 programs we hold are online, so for most of this
list the state you study in and the state you work in need not match. These are the other
states we rank, with what each one holds.
