By influential in TX, I mean it is among the top 5 universities with the highest SAT scores and percentage of hs students in the top 10% in the state of TX. In size it is probably the biggest. It is also one of the oldest colleges and has one of the biggest endowments… Consequently, its alumni play a major role in politics and management of businesses in the state. Therefore, grads from these schools find it easy to find employment in a state with about 30 million people. You could probably say the same about grads of MIT, Harvard, Williams, Amherst, Tufts, BC etc in Massachusetts. In NJ it might not be Seton Hall, but Princeton, Rutgers and Stevens etc. Although, NJ is kind of small, so graduates of schools in NY such as Columbia and U Penn in PA are also probably influential in it.