Today, we're visiting Murray State University, which is ranked the 9th top public masters university in the nation according to US News and World Report, making it an attractive choice for both students and parents. The university is located in Murray, Kentucky, which is roughly 2 hours northwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Murray State University's main campus is spread over 232 acres of former countryside and still maintains a warm and natural southern country feel, featuring lots of grass and trees, making it perfect for college life and studying. Murray State University enrolls over 10,000 total students with more than 8,500 undergrads, featuring a ratio of 60 percent female to 40 percent male. Minority and international students make up 11 percent of the student population.
We all know here at Murray State that it's very important for students to go to college, but what we know is even more important is that they finish. And so we do everything possible to make sure that our freshmen have all the support, all the nurturing, and all of the opportunities to be successful as they go through here.
Murray State is a 4-year public school that has moderately selected entry standards. Out of nearly 3,000 freshmen applications, 83 percent were admitted. Freshmen are required to complete pre-college classes, have accumulated high school GPA of 3.0 or higher or graduate in the top half of their class, as well as score of composite of 18 on the ACT.
I think people come here for various reasons. Murray is one of the few campuses that allows you to bring your horses or many people whom have raised horses and wants to keep their horse with them. We actually offer stables so they can come and do that. Rodeo and equestrians are the big club here. Agriculture is one of our big departments here. I think what gets people to stay here at Murray State is the home feeling that you get. When you get here at Murray, you already--you immediately feel like you're family, whether it's the president, vice president, deans.
The tuition cost including fees, housing, and meals is just over 10,000 dollars for in-state students, and just over 20,000 for out of state, earning Murray State a ranking by US News and Worlds Report in the great schools at great prizes category for the fourth consecutive year. Murray State University offers 117 associate bachelor's, master's, and specialist degree programs. The university features an average class size of 20 with only 4 percent of classes holding more than 50 students.
Class size is really small here in Murray State and one specific example of that is our freshmen English classes are capped at 25. The reason why we do that is 'cause we have 25 computers in the classroom. So that way, that every student can have a computer and do in-class work on a computer in class. Another example of that is most of your classes will range from 25 to maximum 40. And then as you progresses in your major, it gets smaller and smaller and smaller.
Some of the most popular majors at Murray State include Elementary Education, Business Administration, Nursing, Biology, and Animal Health Technology. Seventy-eight percent of the faculty at Murray State University has a PhD or the highest degree in their field. Eighty-six percent are full-time employees and the student to faculty ration is 16 to 1.
The faculty at Murray State are wonderful in the sense that they not only have a real feel for their academic discipline and they publish articles and do the things that students don't necessarily see, but we try to bring faculty in who are very student-oriented, and who want to spend time with students, who don't want to teach large lecture classes, and we do not have those here. They want to get to know their students and help them be successful.
The Murray State University Racers field 16 men's and women's varsity sports teams and all, except football, participate in the NCAA Division 1 level in the Ohio Valley Conference. Murray State features housing for over 3,000 students most of which accommodate 2 students per unit. With over 200 campus organizations and over 3,000 programs or events scheduled each year, Murray State University students can't say there's nothing going on. From Greek Life to equestrian and rodeo events, to a golf course, and a new wellness center on campus, there are always activities for students.
Sorority is a great opportunity that we do have on Murray State's campus. Greek life is definitely big on our campus that we are only about 10 percent of our school's population. We have a lot of set going on that all students can get involved with, our philanthropic activities. Definitely a lot of community service. It just gives opportunities, job opportunities, leadership opportunities. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's really hard to explain. You can't explain that you have kinda just see what it's all about.
Murray State grads have helped create everything from a lunar moonbuggy to helping power Shrek and even protect the nation's mail from anthrax after 9/11.
I think one of the neatest things that we do in our department to [inaudible] with research or just activities, sort of applied research and that's actually what we do more in our department is applied research. And we're working real closely with both the Kentucky and the National Homeland Security. We built--it's a called the MITOC. It's a portable vehicle for security. And if you have an emergency at a community or the town or in an industry, this vehicle can immediately go in much like they needed in New Orleans years ago and can setup a wireless communication system and we've built and designed that to our department and we've gotten glance from the state and federal funding for that. And now we'll begin to market and sale those around the Southeast. So it's a really an exciting activity.
Murray State has helped developed famous actors and even top business leaders. If you're looking to be part of the nationally top ranked university in a country setting, you may wanna check out Murray State. Thanks for joining us here in Murray, Kentucky on our tour of Murray State University. This is Ferrari St. Paul. See you next time.
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