University of Missouri-Columbia

The University of Missouri (also, Mizzou, MU, or University of Missouri–Columbia) is a public, land-grant, research university located in the U.S. state of Missouri. In 1839, the university was founded in Columbia as the first public institution of higher education west of the Mississippi River. As the largest university in Missouri, MU enrolls 35,441 students offering over 300 degree programs in 19 academic colleges in the 2014–15 year. The university is the flagship of the University of Missouri System, which maintains campuses in Rolla, Kansas City, and St. Louis.

MU is one of the nation's top-tier R1 institutions and one of the 34 public universities to be members of the Association of American Universities. There are more than 270,000 MU alumni living worldwide with almost one half continuing to reside in Missouri. The University of Missouri was ranked 103rd among national universities in the 2016 U.S. News & World Report rankings .

The University of Missouri Research Reactor Center is the world's most powerful university research reactor. It is one of only six public universities in the United States with a school of medicine, veterinary medicine, engineering, agriculture, and law all on one campus. The university also owns the University of Missouri Health Care system, which operates four hospitals in Mid-Missouri.