Texas Christian University is a private institution of higher education founded in 1873 by Addison and Randolph Clark, preachers and educators from East Texas. After returning from the Civil War, the two brothers decided to open a private school, and in September 1873 the AddRan Male and Female Academy welcomed its first class of 13 students, becoming the first coeducational institution in Texas. In 1902, the name of the school was changed to Texas Christian University, and in 1911 the university moved to its present location in Fort Worth, Texas.

Today, TCU offers over 115 undergraduate programs and graduate degrees in 94 areas, including 25 doctoral fields of study. Total enrollment is around 12,000 graduate and undergraduate students. Full-time faculty members number over 620. The endowment of the University was established in 1910 from an initial campaign generating $55,000. In 2023, the endowment's assets under management totaled $2.5 billion, placing TCU among the top 70 universities in the United States in terms of endowment size.

The motto of TCU is Disciplina est facultas ("Learning is power"). The school colors are purple, which represents royalty, and white, which stands for a clean game. The university mascot is the Horned Frog, a species of horned lizard native to Texas. When TCU (then known as Add-Ran Christian University) fielded its first football team in 1896, the practice field was overrun by horned frogs. Players, seeming to realize their movements mirrored the unique animal, began refrerring to themselves as Horned Frogs and the nickname stuck.

Texas Christian University has been ranked as one of the best national doctoral universities in the United States. In the 2024 rankings by U.S.News & World Report, TCU placed 98th and is among the top 50 private doctoral universities in the country. In addition, TCU joins Rice, Southern Methodist University, Baylor, Texas A&M University, and the University of Texas-Austin as the only institutions in Texas ranked in the top 100 national doctoral universities category. Moreover, TCU is ranked by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a doctoral university with high research activity (R2).