A Guide to Academics at Mississippi State University

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Casey Malone in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

 

What’s Covered:

• Research at Mississippi State
• Different Colleges at Mississippi State
• College of Veterinary Medicine
• College of Education
• Smaller Colleges at Mississippi State

 

 

Research at Mississippi State

 

Mississippi State has a great reputation for on-campus research. They are one of the top 100 research institutions listed by the National Science Foundation and have the R1 Designation by Carnegie for elite research activity. When people think about research, they usually think about thesis papers, lab environments, and experiments. Mississippi State has all these forms of research and more. 

 

Different Colleges at Mississippi State

 

College of Business

 

The College of Business at Mississippi State is ranked sixth for worldwide entrepreneurship research. They have something called the E-Center, which is similar to the structure of the show Shark Tank, except Mississippi State has its own version, called the Dog Tank. Over twenty CEOs who have graduated from Mississippi State and built multi-million-dollar businesses participated in Mississippi State’s programs at the E-Center. 

 

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 

 

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is well-known around campus for producing the famous Mississippi State cheese. There is a dairy farm and dairy-processing plant on campus that processes hundreds of thousands of gallons of milk annually. All of the produce stays on campus, where it goes into producing Mississippi State cheese and ice cream. As a student eating in the dining halls, you will have access to an unlimited amount of this ice cream and cheese. Students interested in agriculture can also take part in the process. 

 

Students in the life science part of this college can participate in topics like human development, child studies, and floral design, among others. There are even areas for students to study fashion design and merchandising. This is the advantage of going to a large school. Not only are there many colleges within the university, but each has an array of different majors and learning opportunities.

 

College of Architecture, Art, and Design

 

This college has majors like interior design, building, and construction science. There is also a fine arts department and a school of architecture. Mississippi State especially excels in the architecture department. 

 

An alumnus of the Mississippi State College of Architecture, Janet Smith currently works for the Dodgers as the vice president of programming and development. She helped design several different major league stadiums and consulted in building the Mississippi State Baseball stadium. Janet is in the Mississippi sports hall of fame because of this and is a great example of how to combine passions for sports and for architecture. 

 

Bagley College of Engineering

 

This college is what Mississippi State is most well known for due to the incredible research that these students participate in. No matter the engineering discipline—and Bagley College has thirteen—students will be able to get to know their professors and do hands-on work in their classes. 

 

Mississippi State has one of the largest non-government-owned high-voltage laboratories on campus. They do research for the Department of Defense and several airlines that want lightning testing. This type of cutting-edge research is just one of the many different types that Mississippi students can get involved in. 

 

College of Veterinary Medicine 

 

Believe it or not, it is actually harder to become an animal doctor than to become a doctor for humans. There are only thirty-two accredited college programs for veterinary medicine in the entire country. Mississippi State has one of these programs on campus, and this is a professional program that students can apply for after they graduate from Mississippi State. They have access to an early-entry program available during their senior year. This basically guarantees a spot in the College of Veterinary Medicine. 

 

The College of Veterinary Medicine is a full-service clinic with many different specialties. During their junior year at the college, veterinary medical students can apply for the Veterinary Medicine Technology Program, which is basically nursing for animals. Veterinary medical students spent two years in the classroom and two years in clinicals. This is unique because most veterinary medical schools have students in a classroom for three years and only support one year of clinicals, so students at Mississippi State get a great opportunity to learn outside of the classroom. 

 

College of Education

 

The College of Education at Mississippi State is unique because it has a partnership with Starkville Oktibbeha School District. Sixth and seventh graders from Oktibbeha actually go to school on the Mississippi State campus. This is a completely free public school experience for them, and Mississippi State students can go there and gain observation hours with the Oktibbeha middle schoolers. 

 

Smaller Colleges at Mississippi State 

 

College of Forest Resources 

 

If you love the great outdoors, students have access to 32,000 acres at the Bienville National Forest, where they can study conservation environmentalism. Students studying sustainable byproducts at Mississippi State are doing research for IKEA right now, including strength training for the company. While there isn’t an IKEA store in the state of Mississippi, students are still able to participate in this great opportunity. 

 

Shackouls Honors College

 

The Shackouls Honors College strives to create a small liberal arts tech college environment at a large state school. If you want to take part in this honors college, classes are about ten to fifteen students. It is definitely a unique experience at Mississippi State. Classes are more discussion based and conversational with the professors. 

 

There is no minimum test score to get into the honors college, but students should apply with an above-average GPA and ACT score. Students at the Shackouls Honors average a 30 on the ACT and a 3.75 GPA, so aim to test in this range.