The University of Missouri was founded in 1839 in Columbia, Mo., as the first public university west of the Mississippi River and the first state university in Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase territory. MU provides all the benefits of two universities in one — it's a major land-grant institution and Missouri's largest public research university.

 

Considered one of the nation's top-tier institutions, Mizzou has a reputation of excellence in teaching and research, and is the flagship campus of the four-campus University of Missouri System.