HOUSTON -

Just five years ago, the University of Houston the university of the energy capital of the world did not have an undergraduate program in petroleum engineering.

Now that program is growing rapidly, and UH is ahead of the game with the nation's first subsea engineering master's program, aimed at feeding workers into cutting-edge fields as oil production moves farther out to sea.

Bridging such glaring gaps between the university and the city it serves is helping UH shed its longstanding reputation as a mediocre commuter school. With improved academic performance, expanded research endeavors and a rejuvenated campus, the 87-year-old university stands poised to realize the great potential that many agree it's always had.

The one-time "Cougar High" is set to lure two national research institutes, one of which would be built around the subsea program. UH has renewed a push to start a medical school, and it's prepared to launch a fundraising campaign that officials are confident will bring in billions.

"We really are at a tipping point," said President and Chancellor Renu Khator, the forceful leader credited with guiding UH through much of its transformation. "We've done a lot in seven years, but the potential, looking at where Houston is, for this university, is great."

UH is looking more and more like the top-tier school it wants to be. The university has lured 10 members of the prestigious national Academies of science and engineering since 2009, when it had just four. Incoming undergraduates are sharper than ever this year's class scored five points better on the SAT than last year. And those students are returning at a higher rate, a sign that the university's sluggish graduation rate could pick up.

Yet the recent progress has come at a cost. UH has become one of the state's most expensive public universities, and the school recently felt friction with some influential stakeholders, worried that in its drive for elite status, UH was forsaking the working-class students it has always served.

Despite these concerns, donations are flowing in faster than ever and private developments are rising around campus, evidence of a community literally buying into a new narrative.

When Matt Franchek, now director of UH's new subsea engineering program, interviewed at UH in 2002, a quote from a prospective colleague was telling: "This place is asleep."

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New energy fuels school's ambitions