Missouri Campus

MU Leads the Way

• Professional journalists consistently rate MU’s School of Journalism, the first in the world, with more top rankings than any other journalism school in the country.

• For fall ‘98, MU welcomed 22,723 students representing every county in Missouri, every state in the nation and 114 countries.

• MU is a top academic leader in the Big 12. This year’s freshman class has the highest ACT average in MU history at 25.8, compared with the national average of 21.8 and state average of 22.6. More than one-third come from the top 10 percent of their high school class.

• MU has twice as many of the state’s Bright Flight Scholars compared to other Missouri colleges – nearly one-third, or 2,450, are MU students. One in six Mizzou freshmen is a Bright Flight Scholar, scoring in the top three percent nationally on the ACT or SAT.

• Student-athletes at MU are competitive in many areas. Grades are the highest they’ve been since 1982, and Mizzou’s student-athletes have the highest graduation rate in the Big 12.

• MU is committed to student success. Student retention, measured by the number of freshmen who return as sophomores, continues to rise each year and stands at 84.5 percent.

• MU’s total African-American enrollment has risen each year for the past five years – a 75 percent increase since 1993 with a current retention rate of 84.2 percent. And MU has enrolled more African-American freshmen in its fall 1997 and 1998 classes than any other school in the Big 12.

• Students in MU’s more than 60 different Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs), where 20 students with shared academic interests live in the same residence hall and enroll in three classes together, earn better grades, return to Mizzou in higher numbers and are involved in their residential communities.

• MU’s Four-Year Graduation Plan guarantees students the courses they need to graduate in four years — or the courses are free.

• MU is one of only 31 public U.S. universities selected for membership in the Association of American Universities and designated a Research University by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. AAU members are the nation’s most prestigious research institutes.

• For its innovative approach and commitment to providing a well-rounded undergraduate education, Mizzou is one of only nine universities, and the only one in the Big 12, to be honored with the nationally respected Theodore M. Hesburgh Award.

• MU is one of the leading public institutions in the country for the number and range of opportunities it offers undergraduates to participate with world-class scholars in research, ranging from studies of ancient languages and literature to molecular biology. In the last seven years, MU has received $3.5 million from the National Science Foundation and others to create more research opportunities to prepare students for the competitive demands of the future.

• MU has one of the premier writing programs of its kind in the nation, according to the National Council of Writing Program Administrators.

• The Missouri Review, the largest university-based literary journal in the country, gives MU students invaluable experience for jobs in publishing and is known internationally as one of the nation’s finest literary magazines.

• The MU School of Law’s dispute resolution program, one of the best in the country and an example for other law schools, is leading the way by offering a master’s degree in dispute resolution and by developing a model mediation act and a uniform arbitration statute for the nation.

• Missouri’s only College of Veterinary Medicine, and one of 27 in the U.S., houses the region’s largest number of veterinary medical specialists, including the nation’s only endowed professorships in ophthalmology and cardiology. The college also is becoming one of the country’s premier centers for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in animals.

• MU’s School of Medicine is the number one provider of physicians for Missouri, is considered one of the country’s best schools oriented toward primary care and regularly receives national acclaim in the area of family and community medicine. Since the school adopted an innovative problem-based learning curriculum, MU medical students are achieving record-breaking scores on the national medicine licensing examinations.

• MU is one of only five universities in the country that has a School of Medicine, a School of Law and a College of Veterinary Medicine all on one campus, which produces unique opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Although there are many universities with the tiger as a mascot, MU is the first one to actively support conservation of wild tigers. The Mizzou Tigers for Tigers program is a pioneering effort to raise awareness and support for the conservation of critically endangered wild tigers.

• The MU Alumni Association and its student-run Homecoming Steering Committee recently received national honors for Mizzou’s model Homecoming program. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education recognized MU, the first school in the country to organize traditional homecoming festivities, with its 1999 Grand Gold award for excellence in alumni relations in the homecomings/reunions category.

• MU’s reach extends well beyond campus. University faculty collaborate with colleagues around the globe. There are more than 150,000 MU graduates worldwide. Mizzou is among the nation’s top 10 public landgrant universities for the number of students it sends to study abroad.