Mississippi State University (MSU) in Starkville, Oktibbeha County, Mississipi, opened in 1878, when it was then known as The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississipi.
MSU was created after the Morrill Act instructed the creation of agricultural colleges, known as land-grant colleges because their creation was funded by grants of federally controlled land were given to each state. MSU was founded with the aim of providing training in “agriculture, horticulture and the mechanical arts … without excluding other scientific and classical studies, including military tactics.”
To reflect the broadening of its areas of study and research, the name was changed to Mississippi State College in 1932, and then to Mississippi State University in 1958.
Today, MSU is comprised of eight Colleges, spread throughout Starkville and its satellite campuses in Meridian, Biloxi and Vicksburg: Agriculture and Life Sciences; Architecture, Art and Design; Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering; Forest Resources; and Veterinary Medicine.
On the 4,200 acres of grounds, there are plenty of farms, pastures, woodlands. The 560-acre MAFES Plant Science Farm and the 1,560-acre MAFES Animal Sciences Farm are home to much of the university’s agricultural research.
There are various off-campus buildings which also form part of the university. Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station has 16 branches, spread throughout the state. There is also an off-campus centre in Meridian, and The Stennis Space Center in Hancock County, which both run undergraduate and graduate degree programmes. The engineering college offers a master of science degree in collaboration with the US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg.
