This page lists the 28 sonography programs in the UltrasoundDegree directory for Texas, at 26 schools, grouped by region. Each entry shows the accreditation the directory records, the degree, the length and concentrations where the record has them, and what sets the program apart. The page also covers Texas’s licensing status and May 2025 wages.
The number 28 counts directory entries, each with one program page. Two institutions have two Texas campuses listed, so the entries belong to 26 schools: Pima Medical Institute (El Paso and Houston) and The College of Health Care Professions (Austin and Fort Worth). Of the 28 entries, 13 carry a programmatic-accreditation record from the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), all through the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography (JRC-DMS). One more, Angelina College, states CAAHEP in its directory description but has no structured record. The other 14 record no programmatic accreditation; eight of those state CAAHEP on the school’s own website, and the entry says so where that is the case. Five of the 28 program pages are cardiac or vascular programs. None is a bachelor’s degree. An earlier version of this page listed 13 programs. Six of them have no directory record and are not counted here: UTHealth Houston, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Lone Star College–Montgomery, San Antonio College, South Texas College, and Amarillo College. Twenty-one schools that do have directory records were missing from that list.
Accreditation in Texas: what the records show
Two different things get called “accredited.” Institutional accreditation covers the whole college; the Texas schools below that name one cite the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) or, at the private career colleges, the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES), which accredits institutions rather than programs. Programmatic accreditation covers one program. For sonography, that is CAAHEP, which accredits diagnostic medical sonography programs on the recommendation of JRC-DMS. Cardiovascular technology programs go through a separate committee, the JRC-CVT, and include non-ultrasound methods. No Texas entry records a JRC-CVT program: Weatherford College and Lamar Institute of Technology file their cardiac degrees under JRC-DMS, and only the Baylor Scott & White echocardiography program’s page names JRC-CVT. CAAHEP allows an accredited hospital to sponsor a program, and Texas has two health-system programs. The CAAHEP standards are competency-based and set no minimum clinical hours, which is one reason the degree lengths below run from 19 to 24 months. More in programmatic vs. institutional accreditation and Chapter 11, Accreditation. CAAHEP’s own search, linked under related pages, is the primary source for current status.
Accreditation matters for the certification exams. The American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography (ARDMS) awards its credentials by exam only, and each applicant has to meet one of its prerequisites first. Prerequisite 2 covers students and graduates of a CAAHEP-accredited sonography, cardiac sonography, or vascular technology program: no clinical experience beyond the program is required, and students may apply up to 60 days before graduation. Graduates of programs without CAAHEP accreditation use a different route. Prerequisite 1 requires a two-year allied-health program in a patient-care field plus 12 months of full-time clinical ultrasound experience after it; Prerequisite 3A, a bachelor’s degree in any field plus the same 12 months. Prerequisite 5 is a crossover for holders of a credential from Cardiovascular Credentialing International (CCI), the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT), or Sonography Canada. Every ARDMS credential requires the Sonography Principles and Instrumentation (SPI) exam plus a specialty exam, passed within five years of each other. The general credential is the Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS); cardiac programs point toward the Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer (RDCS) and vascular programs toward the Registered Vascular Technologist (RVT). ARRT issues its own Sonography credential, which two Texas colleges name as an alternative for their graduates. Details: Chapter 4, Licensing and Certification, the SPI exam, ARDMS vs. CCI, and how to verify a program’s accreditation.
In the entries below, “CAAHEP (JRC-DMS)” means the directory entry records that accreditation. “No programmatic accreditation recorded” means the entry has no accreditation data, not that the program lacks it. “Own page, September 2026” means the school’s website stated the fact when checked that month. The degree name in each entry links to its directory program page.
Sonography schools in Texas by region
Houston and the Gulf Coast
Houston Community College, Houston. Associate of Applied Science (AAS) in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, run at Coleman College, plus an Advanced Technical Certificate. Four semesters; Abdomen-Extended and OB/GYN concentrations. About 200 people apply per cycle for 26 fall and 16 spring seats, with both tracks in one selection pool. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS).
Harris Health System, School of Diagnostic Medical Imaging, Bellaire, in the Houston area. A hospital-based sonography program, 22 months, weekdays, July start, inside the county’s public safety-net health system; clinical rotations at Ben Taub and Lyndon B. Johnson hospitals cover abdominal, OB/GYN, and introductory vascular work. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS, described by the school as the only CAAHEP-accredited hospital-based sonography program in Texas.
Lone Star College–CyFair, Cypress. An associate-degree program in diagnostic medical, cardiac, and vascular sonography at one of the Lone Star College System’s eight Houston-area campuses; the directory files it as a cardiovascular program pointing toward the RDCS and RVT. No programmatic accreditation recorded. The earlier page listed the Montgomery campus in Conroe, which has no directory record.
Pima Medical Institute, Houston campus. Associate degree in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 22 months over five semesters, with scanning from the first semester. ABHES institutional accreditation recorded; no programmatic accreditation recorded. Pima’s network pages name CAAHEP for its El Paso and Houston sonography campuses, but the 2026 checks could not confirm it campus by campus.
San Jacinto College, Pasadena. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography covering abdominal, OB/GYN, and vascular sonography: two years, 65 credits over five terms after prerequisites, in a Medical Imaging department. The directory places it at the South campus; a September 2026 check of the college’s site named the Central campus and did not find the accreditation stated. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS) per the directory.
Alvin Community College, Alvin. A Diagnostic Cardiovascular Sonography program covering adult echocardiography, pediatric echocardiography, and vascular sonography at a public two-year college founded in 1948. The degree awarded is not in the record. No programmatic accreditation recorded.
Galveston College, Galveston. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, five semesters, with Abdomen-Extended and OB/GYN concentrations, at the public college serving Galveston County. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS in both concentrations, plus ARRT recognition, so graduates may register through ARRT or ARDMS.
Lamar Institute of Technology, Beaumont. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 65 credit hours, at a public member of the Lamar University System serving Southeast Texas; a separate 65-credit Diagnostic Cardiac Sonography AAS runs alongside it. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS for both.
Dallas–Fort Worth and North-Central Texas
Dallas College – El Centro, downtown Dallas. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, two years full-time, with Abdomen-Extended, OB/GYN, and Vascular concentrations, at a campus of one of the largest community college systems in Texas. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS in all three.
Parker University, Dallas. AAS in Diagnostic Sonography, with small class sizes, at a private university founded on chiropractic principles; it also lists an AAS in Diagnostic Cardiovascular Sonography. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS; SACSCOC institutional.
Baylor Scott & White, Dallas–Fort Worth. A hospital-based Adult Echocardiography certificate, 52 weeks, at the health system’s Heart Hospital Cardiovascular Institute; admission requires an associate degree. The directory lists a Dallas address and fees of about $22,100; the program’s own page places it in Plano at $18,000 plus a $100 fee. No programmatic accreditation recorded; the program’s page states CAAHEP through JRC-CVT since 2021. The only cardiac-only program in the Texas directory.
Collin College, McKinney. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography at a college with campuses across Collin County. Two tracks, each 65 credit hours under the same accreditation: a General Track (Abdomen-Extended, OB/GYN) and a Cardiac Track (Adult Cardiac). CAAHEP (JRC-DMS).
Tarrant County College, Fort Worth. AAS sonography program with Abdominal, OB/GYN, and Vascular training at a multi-campus college, with GPA and prerequisite-course admission rules and cohorts of about 12. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS in all three.
The College of Health Care Professions, Fort Worth campus. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 96 weeks, blended format, at a for-profit college with campuses across Texas; the campus also lists cardiac and cardiovascular sonography degrees. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS); ABHES institutional. The Austin campus is under Central Texas.
Weatherford College, Weatherford. Four sonography-family programs at a public college serving Parker County: a 22-month, 65-credit Diagnostic Medical Sonography program; a 19-month, 64-credit Cardiovascular Sonography AAS, the page the directory links; a 24-credit Adult Echocardiography certificate for working sonographers; and a Pediatric Cardiovascular Sonography program pending SACSCOC approval. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS) for both degrees, the cardiovascular one under JRC-DMS rather than JRC-CVT.
Hill College, Cleburne campus (the college is headquartered in Hillsboro). AAS in cardiovascular and vascular sonography covering echocardiography and vascular technology at a public two-year college founded in 1923. No programmatic accreditation recorded.
Austin and Central Texas
Austin Community College, Austin. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography at a public college district founded in 1973. Own page, September 2026: two tracks, each with an AAS (Diagnostic Medical or Cardiac Sonography) and an Advanced Technical Certificate (Vascular or Cardiovascular Sonography). CAAHEP (JRC-DMS).
The College of Health Care Professions, Austin campus. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography covering scanning technique, ultrasound physics, equipment operation, and patient care; the campus runs three separate sonography AAS degrees: diagnostic medical, cardiac, and cardiovascular. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS); ABHES institutional.
Temple College, Temple. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Admission is competitive and requires an in-person information session, volunteer hours, a HESI entrance exam, and an interview. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS), confirmed on the college’s own page in September 2026.
San Antonio and South Texas
St. Philip’s College, San Antonio. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography through the Alamo Colleges District, with abdominal, obstetrical, and gynecological concentrations, preparing graduates for the ARDMS and ARRT exams, at a historically Black college and Hispanic-Serving Institution. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS). The earlier page listed San Antonio College, another Alamo college, which has no directory record.
Medical Education and Training Campus (METC), Joint Base San Antonio–Fort Sam Houston. A Department of Defense training center, founded in 2011, whose Diagnostic Medical Sonographer course is open only to Air Force and Navy enlisted personnel: 428 hours over 10 weeks, 27 semester hours through the Community College of the Air Force, and ARDMS eligibility after a year of on-the-job training. No programmatic accreditation recorded. The center’s website could not be checked in 2026.
Del Mar College, Corpus Christi. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography at the Windward Campus of a public college founded in 1935; a separate Cardiac Sonography AAS is listed under the same accreditation. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS), confirmed on its own page in September 2026.
Texas Southmost College, Brownsville. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography serving the South Texas border region, with Abdominal-Extended and OB/GYN concentrations; graduates are eligible for the ARDMS SPI, Abdomen, and OB/GYN exams on completion. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS).
El Paso and West Texas
El Paso Community College, El Paso. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography with abdominal and OB/GYN concentrations at a two-year public college with several campuses in the El Paso region. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS).
Pima Medical Institute, El Paso campus. Associate degree in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 22 months over five semesters, in the same format as the Houston campus. ABHES institutional accreditation recorded; no programmatic accreditation recorded, with the same campus-level caveat as Houston.
Midland College, Midland. AAS in Sonography, 22 months over four 16-week semesters and a 12-week summer, with Abdominal-Extended, OB/GYN, and Vascular concentrations. Clinical rotations run at Midland Memorial Hospital and at sites across West Texas and eastern New Mexico, with students covering their own travel; applications are taken in one window, May 15 to June 15. No programmatic accreditation recorded. Own page, September 2026: CAAHEP through JRC-DMS.
East Texas
Tyler Junior College, Tyler. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, 24 months, preparing graduates for the ARDMS exams in the general specialties; the college also offers a Diagnostic Echocardiography program. CAAHEP (JRC-DMS).
Angelina College, Lufkin. AAS in Diagnostic Medical Sonography through the School of Health Careers at a public college founded in 1966, with small class sizes and clinical placements at affiliated hospital and imaging sites. The directory description states CAAHEP through JRC-DMS, and the college’s own page confirmed it in September 2026, but the entry’s structured accreditation record is empty.
Panhandle and North Texas
The directory holds no entry for a sonography program in the Panhandle or in North Texas beyond Dallas–Fort Worth. Amarillo College appeared on an earlier version of this page but has no directory record, so it is not listed or counted. CAAHEP’s search is the primary source for any program the directory does not hold.
Program types found in Texas
| Program type | Entries | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Associate degree, general sonography, college-based | 21 | Every entry except the four cardiac or vascular degree pages, the two health-system programs, and the military course. Stated lengths run from four semesters (Houston CC) to 24 months (Tyler); 65 credit hours where stated (Collin, Lamar, San Jacinto, Weatherford). |
| Associate degree, cardiac or vascular focus | 4 | Alvin (degree not in record), Hill, Lone Star–CyFair, Weatherford cardiovascular AAS (19 months). Seven other colleges run a cardiac track or degree beside a general program. |
| Hospital or health-system based | 2 | Harris Health System (general, 22 months); Baylor Scott & White (echocardiography certificate, 52 weeks, associate degree required) |
| Military course | 1 | METC, Fort Sam Houston (10 weeks; military-only) |
| Stand-alone certificate open to the public | 0 | Houston CC, Austin CC, and Weatherford offer certificates beside a degree; none stands alone. |
| Bachelor’s degree | 0 | The earlier page listed bachelor’s options at UTHealth Houston and UT Southwestern; neither has a directory record. |
Nationally, the associate degree is the typical entry-level education for a diagnostic medical sonographer, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Outlook Handbook; certificate and bachelor’s programs also exist. Twenty-four of the 28 Texas entries record an associate degree. The degree levels are compared in associate vs. bachelor’s sonography degrees; Chapter 2, Educational Pathways, covers certificates, and Chapter 13, Cost and Financial Aid, covers cost. Competitive admission, with entrance exams, interviews, or a single application window, is covered in sonography prerequisites. The cardiac credential is the RDCS and the vascular credential is the RVT; the specialties are described under cardiac sonography and vascular sonography. Hospitals held about 57 percent of sonographer jobs nationally in 2024 and about 75 percent of cardiovascular technologist jobs, according to the BLS; see hospital vs. outpatient sonography.
State licensing in Texas
Texas does not license diagnostic medical sonographers. As of 2026, the Society of Diagnostic Medical Sonography (SDMS) lists four states that mandate a sonographer license: New Mexico, Oregon, North Dakota, and New Hampshire. Texas is not one of them. New Mexico, next door, has licensed sonographers through its Medical Imaging Radiation Therapy Program since July 2019; Midland College’s clinical sites reach into eastern New Mexico. Certification is separate from licensing. The ARDMS, ARRT, and CCI credentials described in Chapter 4 are national registries and do not depend on the state. Organization page: SDMS.
Sonographer wages and employment in Texas
The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program reports state figures for diagnostic medical sonographers (SOC 29-2032). The May 2025 release gives Texas the following, beside the national figures from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook for the same month.
| May 2025 | Texas | National |
|---|---|---|
| Median annual wage | $92,580 | $96,590 |
| Mean annual wage | $88,940 | — |
| 10th percentile | $64,360 | $67,820 |
| 90th percentile | $106,090 | $129,370 |
| Employment | 6,960 | 92,200 |
Source: BLS OEWS state estimates for SOC 29-2032, May 2025 (Texas); BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 (national).
Texas ranks second among the states by sonographer employment in that table, behind California at 10,110 and ahead of New York at 6,880 and Florida at 6,670. By median wage it ranks 30th of the 52 states and territories, $4,010 below the national median, and its 90th-percentile figure sits $23,280 below the national one. Every neighboring state sits lower: New Mexico $87,210 (32nd), Oklahoma $83,670 (37th), Arkansas $81,500 (45th), Louisiana $80,710 (47th). BLS projects national sonographer employment to grow 14 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average, with about 6,000 openings a year. That projection is national; the handbook has no Texas-specific projection, and no metro-level figures are cited here. State-by-state comparison: sonographer salary by state. Chapter 8, Salary and Compensation, and Chapter 7, Job Market and Employment Trends, cover the national picture. Occupation profile: diagnostic medical sonographer.
Related pages
- Texas school directory: all 28 school pages, with addresses and official-site links
- Sonography and Ultrasound Degree Guide: the 13-chapter reference this page draws on
- CAAHEP, JRC-DMS, JRC-CVT, ABHES, ARDMS, ARRT, and CCI organization pages
- RDMS, RDCS, and RVT credential explainers
- Abdominal, OB/GYN, cardiac, and vascular specialty pages; Chapter 12, Sonography Specialties, for the rest
- How to evaluate a sonography program and reading program outcome data
- Other state guides: California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Alabama, and Nevada
- CAAHEP’s accredited-program search (the primary source for current programmatic accreditation), ARDMS, and BLS OEWS tables
Last verified: September 2026. School facts come from the UltrasoundDegree directory entry for each school; “own page” facts were checked against the school’s website in September 2026. Most directory entries link the school’s official site, where current admission rules and accreditation status are published.