According to the "U.S. News and World Report's" College Rankings, Mississippi State University is the largest college in Mississippi with an enrollment of more than 14,500 undergraduate students as of 2010. MSU is located in Starkville, a rural town in Mississippi, and it was originally founded as a Carnegie Research Institution in 1878. Less than 10 percent of the undergraduate student body participates in fraternities or sororities. Popular majors include agriculture, business and engineering. The mascot for MSU's athletic teams, which play in the Southeastern Conference, is the Bulldog.
The second largest college in Mississippi is the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss." According to the "U.S. News and World Report's" College Rankings, Ole Miss has an undergraduate enrollment of more than 13,000 students. Ole Miss was founded in 1848 and is located in Oxford, however, it has several supplemental campuses, including a medical college in Jackson. More than 30 percent of its student body participates in either fraternities or sororities, and the school is a member of the Southeastern Conferences for athletics; its mascot is the Rebel.
Mississippi also has several schools that specialize specifically in theology. The Mississippi Commission on College Accreditation lists two schools as having full accreditation with the Association of Biblical Higher Education: Southeastern Baptist College in Laurel, and Wesley College, a Methodist school in Florence. Additionally, there are schools that are not strictly theological, but are denominational, including three schools run by the Southern Baptist Convention: Blue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, Mississippi College in Clinton and William Carey University in Hattisburg.
Additionally, Mississippi has 15 community and junior colleges located across the state, according to the official website of the Mississippi State Board for Community & Junior Colleges. These schools vary in the types of courses offered, ranging from university-level academic courses to technical skills training to adult education and GED preparation. Additionally, several of the courses for Mississippi community and junior colleges are available online through the Mississippi Virtual Community College which, according to the state, offers more than 2,500 courses.