The Best Colleges in Mississippi

Mississippi State

• MSU had the largest enrollment in the state at 18,601 students for the fall of 2009. This public university sits on about 4,200 rural acres adjacent to the town of Starkville. The campus is centered around the Drill Field, a wide-open quad that gets its name from servicemen who used it as a training ground before World War II. The university had a 65 percent acceptance rate in 2009 and at in-state tuition just $5,151 per year, it is largely considered a bargain school by such publications as Forbes Magazine. The most popular majors include business, education, engineering and agriculture. The College of Architecture Art and Design is one of the most competitive on campus with its design architecture program being ranked second in the nation in 2009 by the publication DesignIntelligence.

  Mississippi State University
  P.O. Box 6018
  Mississippi State, MS 39762
  662-325-2121
  msstate.edu

Ole Miss

• The University of Mississippi had a student enrollment of 15,932 for the fall 2009 semester. The campus rests in the charming Southern town of Oxford, which like Starkville is very rural but has a more congested and livelier nightlife and restaurant scene. Ole Miss had a 79 percent admission rate in 2009 with most students studying business and marketing, education, communications and psychology. The School of Pharmacy is nationally recognized and ranked in the top five in 2009 for total extramural funding awarded for research. There is also a campus in the state capital of Jackson, which houses the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

  University of Mississippi
  P.O. Box 1848
  University, MS 38677-1848
  662-915-7226
  olemiss.edu

University of Southern Mississippi

• Southern Miss is a well-funded research institution with a student population of 15,293 for the fall 2009 semester. Located in the deep Southern town of Hattiesburg, 78 percent of the enrollment comes from within the state. The school prides itself on diversity, as 52 percent were white and 39 percent African-American. It consistently ranks as one of the most competitive schools in the state as evidenced by its 56 percent admission rate in 2009. The most popular majors include business, health professions and education, which offers its future teachers learning opportunities on its campus near the Gulf Coast. The College of Arts & Letters is one of the most prestigious in the Southeast, as one of the select few national institutions to offer disciplines in art, dance, music and theater.

  University of Southern Mississippi
  118 College Drive #5001
  Hattiesburg, MS 39406-0001
  601-266-4111
  usm.edu