Pride points
MU has top-flight students
MU is the No. 1 college choice for Missouri high school seniors. In fact, one-third of the state's college-bound high school graduates join the Mizzou family each year.
For 10 consecutive years, the University of Missouri has welcomed a record-breaking enrollment, with large increases in ethnically diverse, high-ability, out-of-state and low-income students.
MU has 33,805 students representing every Missouri county, every state and 120 countries.
The 2011 freshman class boasts an average ACT score of 25.7, compared with the national average of 21.1 and the state average of 21.6. Twenty-five percent of MU freshmen come from the top 10 percent of their high school classes.
Mizzou has almost twice as many Bright Flight Scholars — students who score in the top three percent of all Missouri students taking the ACT or SAT — as any other college or university in the state.
MU graduate students perform many of the hands-on aspects of research and go on to top-level work throughout society. Mizzou’s 7,781 graduate and professional students make up 23 percent of the university’s enrollment.
MU’s Division I-A athletics program has more than 500 student-athletes in 20 sports, many ranked in the top 25 nationally.
MU Athletics ranked No. 3 in the nation in The Daily Beast’s 2011 list of top college sports programs that excel academically and had a record 80 percent Graduation Success Rate for 2010-11. Missouri football had five NFL first-round draft picks in the last three years; only one other program nationwide had more.
MU is a nationally competitive, global university
Many states fund separate research and land-grant universities, but Missouri combines those roles at its flagship institution. MU is both a land-grant university with a statewide mission of service to citizens and Missouri’s largest public research university.
Based on quality of teaching, research and scholarship, MU is one of only 34 public U.S. universities — and one of only two institutions in Missouri — invited to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities.
Classified with American universities that offer the most educational opportunities and highest level of instruction, MU is designated “Research University/Very High” and “Community Engaged” by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,
Mizzou is one of only five universities nationwide with law, medicine, veterinary medicine and a nuclear research reactor on one campus.
Five areas are especially strong and growing at Mizzou: Food for the Future; One Health, One Medicine; Media of the Future; Sustainable Energy; and Disruptive and Transformational Technologies. Collectively these areas are called the Mizzou Advantage, a campuswide plan to build on exciting opportunities.
MU gives students a one-of-a-kind education
As Missouri’s flagship university, MU has 19 schools and colleges and 311 degree and certificate programs to help students reach their career and personal goals.
MU’s nationally prominent faculty scholars and scientists bring discoveries into the classroom, publish more than 1,500 books and scholarly articles each year, and attract multi-million-dollar research grants. They also lead international organizations and win notable honors, such as Fulbright scholarships, Pulitzer Prizes and career awards.
MU’s General Education Program is designed to give students the skills they need to become informed citizens and find solutions for complex problems beyond their academic fields. Mizzou’s research and professional schools take the program beyond what liberal-arts colleges can provide.
MU offers students unmatched real-world experiences, including managing a bed and breakfast (The Gathering Place) operating a floral shop (Tiger Garden), preparing income taxes for families, representing domestic violence victims in court, providing health care, working at the country’s only university-owned TV network affiliate (KOMU), performing at Carnegie Hall and co-authoring articles in leading scientific journals. Mizzou students also hold patents and help create startup companies.
For the last decade, U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” has listed Mizzou’s Campus Writing Program and Residential Life learning communities as excellent programs that lead to student success.
Annually hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students participate in formal research, and many others engage in research for pay or academic credit, including MU’s new Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellows.
The MU Office of Service Learning formally integrates community service into student instruction and learning. Currently 3,300 undergraduates volunteer 140,000 hours for 260 community groups through 253 courses. In fact, the Harry S Truman Scholarship Foundation named Mizzou a 2009 Honor Institution for encouraging students to pursue careers in public service.
Nearly 30 percent of MU students come from another state or another country, and a strong international community thrives in Columbia. At the same time Mizzou sends more students to study abroad than any other college or university in Missouri. Currently 1,100 students participate, and 21 percent of graduating seniors have earned credit abroad. MU offers more than 400 programs in 55 countries. A new program allows students to complete a service activity while studying overseas.
MU’s Honors College combines the advantages of a small liberal arts college and a major research university.
Mizzou offers many strong programs on its 1,250-acre campus. Some courses in the sciences are taught in collaboration with MU’s medical school, and humanities classes include such areas as music composition and creative writing, in which students frequently win national awards. Since 2000 MU has produced four national collegiate vocal champions of the Music Teachers National Association.
MU provides an excellent and supportive learning and living environment
Gifts from alumni and friends have created 180 endowments for faculty positions since 1961. Endowments guarantee consistent funding that supports top MU faculty and their research, across disciplines.
MU provides $110 million in student financial aid from its own budget, including endowed scholarships and grants, graduate tuition and fee waivers, and merit-and need-based scholarships (does not include loans). Mizzou spends an additional $50 million on student employment.
MU offers 118 Freshman Interest Groups. Students participate in small groups called FIGs. They live in the same residence hall and attend classes together, resulting in higher rates of retention and graduation.
Named a military-friendly school in 2010 and 2011 and by GI Jobs magazine, MU has a veterans center that serves as a resource for veterans and service members currently enrolled or considering a Mizzou education.
The Mizzou Botanic Garden, established in 1999, covers the campus with 42,000 plants and trees. Faculty members from 10 academic programs use the garden as an outdoor laboratory.
MU’s library collection is Missouri’s largest. Ellis, University Archives and eight specialized libraries hold 3.2 million volumes, 7.5 million microforms, 1.7 million government documents and 53,394 journal subscriptions.
MU’s Museum of Art and Archaeology holds the third-most-extensive art collection in Missouri, and its Museum of Anthropology is the only anthropology museum in the state.
Eighty percent of students take part in more than 600 organizations, many with offices in the new $64 million MU Student Center. The Department of Student Life offers 1,000 educational, social and cultural programs annually.
The Mizzou Student Recreation Complex is one of the 10 largest facilities of its kind in the country. It includes a 50-meter competitive pool and diving well, a club pool with a 17-by-9-foot TV, a high-tech fitness club, a heavy-lifting gym and a new climbing and bouldering wall.
National media consistently rate Columbia among the top U.S. cities for its excellent quality of life. Columbia’s 100,733 inhabitants enjoy more than 200 bars and restaurants, many with live performances; a dozen annual festivals; numerous parks and trails; and the nation’s largest state games competition.
MU powers the economy
A source of innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship, MU boosts the economy by performing research, creating jobs, improving graduates’ earning potential, and attracting and commercializing businesses.
MU is a $1.92 billion enterprise that operates 24/7 and accounts for 72 percent of the research dollars flowing to Missouri’s public universities, generating new knowledge and jobs to power the state’s economy.
MU plays an important role in preparing the work force, graduating an average 6,915 students each year. For example, more Missouri physicians receive medical training from MU than from any other university. Three-fourths of Missouri veterinarians earned their veterinary degrees at MU, and law school alumni practice in every Missouri county and serve at all levels of the state judiciary.
In fiscal 2010, MU and its health system leveraged $257 million in state appropriations by more than seven times.
Annually, MU attracts about $200 million in federal grants and contracts to Missouri. That money is then spent more than twice before leaving the state, generating $500 million in economic activity – an amount roughly equivalent to 50 companies with revenues of $10 million each.
In fiscal 2010, MU received $9.5 million in licensing revenue and filed 67 U.S. patents. To date, companies that have licensed products invented by MU scientists have received about $1 billion in sales revenues.
The MU Life Science Business Incubator helps launch startup companies, many of which grow from student and faculty discoveries, including Adroit Motion (laparoscopic instruments), Equinosis (diagnosing lameness in horses) and Organovo (tissue engineering).
In 2010 clients of MU Extension’s Business Development Program generated a $1.19 billion impact on Missouri’s economy, creating or retaining 16,143 jobs, increasing sales by $515 million, acquiring $467 million in government contracts and starting 265 businesses.
Using $1.5 million a year in federal funds, MU Extension teaches families about nutrition and saves an estimated $13.1 million in future medical costs.
The Missouri Taxpayer Education program at MU helped 3,600 households receive $4.3 million in 2009 income tax refunds.
A 2009 University of Nebraska study found that MU’s Agricultural Experiment Station delivered a 37 percent return on investment over a 42-year period — the highest return of any agricultural research network in the continental U.S.
Engineering faculty and students at the MU Industrial Assessment Center have helped Midwest companies become more energy efficient, saving $1.74 million in two years.
MU discoveries break new ground
MU’s inventors and creators share discoveries with students and link Missouri industry, agriculture, emerging businesses and innovative ideas.
More than 1,000 life scientists at MU are working to improve human and animal health, food and the environment.
Mizzou ranks No. 8 in the nation and No. 15 in the world for the influence of its plant and animal sciences research from 1999 to 2009 (Thomson Reuters).
Interdisciplinary research is MU’s hallmark. Examples of first-rate collaborative environments include the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition, the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center, the Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, the Health Activity Center, the Interdisciplinary Plant Group, and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
MU operates one of five U.S. centers funded by the National Institutes of Health to lead interdisciplinary research on botanicals, part of a $25 billion dietary supplement industry.
MU is a national leader in comparative medicine, in which researchers collaborate by sharing discoveries, innovations and treatments for humans and animals.
MU orthopaedics is a global leader in the convergence of human and animal medicine that turns research discoveries at the molecular level into breakthrough treatments for patients who have injuries or arthritis.
Mizzou has the nation’s most powerful university research reactor and is the largest U.S. producer of radioisotopes for diagnosing and treating cancer.
Mizzou is home to some of the world’s best nanoscientists, who work with particles at the nearly unimaginable scale of one billionth of a meter.
MU has delivered the benefits of research for decades. MU faculty conducted landmark studies in crop rotation that led to advances in sustainable agriculture and developed Mo17, the basis for much of today’s hybrid corn; discovered aureomycin, the first tetracycline antibiotic, on MU’s Sanborn Field in 1948; performed the world’s first pediatric angioplasty to correct heart defects in babies; invented Therasphere® for liver cancer, Quadramet® for bone cancer pain and CeratecTM for brain imaging; developed transgenic pigs, some with organs that could one day be transplanted into humans, and others that produce omega-3 fatty acids to help scientists better understand heart disease; invented a photo-acoustic technique that can detect a single skin cancer cell in a blood sample; and improved the quality of life of arthritis sufferers by showing that regular exercise is the best treatment for the condition.
MU provides solutions for a better life
Every year more than 1 million people turn to MU Extension programs for education and research-based information. And MU’s statewide health system treats patients from every Missouri county, educates future health professionals and conducts life-saving research.
The University of Missouri Health System is one of the most comprehensive health care networks in Missouri. In fiscal 2010, staff handled 532,239 clinic visits and 21,601 inpatient admissions, performed 19,542 surgeries and delivered 1,822 babies. The system also educates tomorrow’s physicians, nurses and allied health specialists via three schools: School of Medicine, Sinclair School of Nursing and the School of Health Professions.
MU Extension specialists at more than 100 locations serve Missourians throughout the state. In addition, continuing and distance education programs had 99,340 enrollments from every state and 50 countries, including 21,161 public safety personnel and 6,517 high school students.
One of every 10 Missouri youth gains critical life skills through University of Missouri Extension 4-H school enrichment programs.
MU’s Fire and Rescue Training Institute and the Law Enforcement Training Institute are making communities safer throughout the state.
The Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute and the Rural Policy Research Institute make objective contributions to state and national public policy.
MU’s Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis is Missouri’s major source for demographic and economic data analysis used in the development and evaluation of economic policy.
MU’s Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory conducts more than 200,000 diagnostic tests annually to help determine the cause of death and disease in animals. The Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital treats 16,000 animal patients annually.
Mizzou has won many international, national and state awards for innovations in energy management. In 2010 MU received an Energy Star CHP Award from the Environmental Protection Agency for significant pollution reduction and energy efficiency.
MU’s power plant uses renewable biomass fuels such as corncobs, used tires, waste wood and switchgrass. In 2012, a coal boiler will be replaced with a biomass boiler that uses 100,000 tons annually of the environmentally friendly fuel.
Mizzou recycles 25 percent of its waste (1,974 tons per year) through efforts such as the annual Tiger Treasures sale of items donated by students as they leave campus. More than 15 tons of items were diverted from the landfill in 2010.
Mizzou’s student-run Homecoming Blood Drive, now in its 25th year, anchors a campus blood donation effort that nets about 8,400 units a year, making it one of the top three college-based programs nationwide.
MU is rich in history, tradition and spirit
Mizzou has the world’s first School of Journalism (founded in 1908), Missouri’s first and only College of Veterinary Medicine (founded in 1946), the first engineering program west of the Mississippi River (founded in 1849) and that nation’s first College of Education at a public university (founded in 1868).
The Tiger, MU’s mascot since about 1890, comes from the nickname of a group of Columbians who protected the town during the Civil War. Later, the mascot was named Truman the Tiger in honor of President Harry S Truman.
The Mizzou Alumni Association sponsors one of the oldest and largest student-run homecoming events in the nation. MU celebrates the 100th year of this honored tradition in 2011.
During Tiger Walk, freshmen run through the Columns toward Jesse Hall to symbolize their entrance into MU. Graduating seniors participate in Tiger Prowl, walking through the Columns toward downtown Columbia to celebrate their new status as Mizzou alumni.
MU engineering students in 1903 were the first to call St. Patrick the patron saint of engineers, launching a popular annual celebration.
In honor of MU’s fallen soldiers, people whisper when walking through the Memorial Union archway; tradition calls for men to tip their hats.
The MU campus features numerous treasures, including six ionic Columns in the center of Francis Quadrangle and the original cornerstone from MU’s first building, Academic Hall, destroyed by fire in 1892; 18 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places; 600-year-old Chinese stone lions; a bronze sculpture of Thomas Jefferson and Jefferson’s original tombstone; the Joy of Discovery, a four-story suspended sculpture in the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center; a bronze Bengal tiger statue and fountain on Tiger Plaza; Sanborn Field, the site of landmark crop studies; and electric dynamos and incandescent lamps from Thomas Edison at the College of Engineering.
