Hey, what's up guys? I'm Shayna for Youniversity TV, and you're joining me here at Southwest Minnesota State University. Let's go.

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Southwest Minnesota State University is located in Marshall, Minnesota. The Marshall area is surrounded by rolling countryside, state and county parks, offering activities like hiking, hunting, skating, biking, and cross-country skiing.

If you're in Marshall, there are all sorts of things to do, um, out in the community, and the community of Marshall welcomes our students.

My roommates and I play Frisbee, we, I don't know, I'm an outdoors person I guess, so I tend to do everything I can outside, I go golfing, I go fishing, hiking in the summer, kayaking, you name it.

SMSU sits on a 216 acre campus at the edge of town. Built in the late 1960s, campus has its own unique architecture, as well as 26 interconnected and accessible buildings.

While other schools in Minnesota, or just in the Midwest in general, are very cold during the winter, our campus is all connected, so they don't have to bundle up quite as much during the winter.

Southwest Minnesota is one of the first campuses in the United States to feature barrier-free architecture, and introduce other programs to help the physically challenged around campus.

Over 3,900 students are enrolled at Southwest, with a student to teach ratio of 23 to 1 and an average class size of 21.

The class sizes are, um, pretty personal. Usually normal classes, generals, even within your major are only going to be you know, 20, 25 people.

But even the larger, like the liberal arts classes , they're smaller, smaller than they are in other schools, so I'm very happy about that. I like that personable kind of connection with my teachers.

The campus is 60 percent female, 40 percent male, and students of color make up around 8 percent. International students come from more than 23 countries. SMSU's admission requirements are 21 or above on the ACT, and 990 and above on the SAT, or a rank in the upper half of the graduating class.

But we do encourage all students to apply because we take into consideration students from all different backgrounds.

Tuition fees are around 6,500 dollars for a full-time student taking 12 to18 credits in a full year. Room and board is estimated at 5,600 dollars and SMSU offers instate tuition to all students. Bonus!

I've never heard of a school like this where you could get the bang for your buck. Um, it's very economical, but the passion and the enthusiasm the teachers have here for what they're doing, uh, their skill set, their knowledge set, it's, you, you don't get an education like this for the value, it was, it's fantastic.

SMSU has approximately 50 Bachelor's degrees, 4 Associate's degrees, 16 pre-professional, and 4 Master's programs. Just a few of students' favorites are elementary education, business administration, psychology, chemistry, marketing, and radio and television.

Students have the opportunity to, um, work here in Marshall while they're students,um, for the Schwan's Food Company, they definitely employ a lot of our students while they're getting their education. We do have a 98 percent placement rate after students graduate from here.

Besides being very well known for their quality education and business programs, Southwest Minnesota is the only university in the world to offer a full Bachelor's of Science in culinology.

SMSU has 323 full time and part time faculty members, with 75 percent having earned the highest degree in their field. There are no teaching assistants, so all classes are taught by professors.

We have a tremendous young, um, faculty in sciences, chemistry, biology, environmental science, they're very interested in research, they get students doing research.

You find faculty that are so much like family, they are pretty good with appointments and stuff, and have plenty of, um, office hours for us.

So they want you to come if you have any problems or any questions on your homework, so they're all really, um, personal and really willing to help.

SMSU is NCAA Division Two university, supporting 11 varsity sports, and part of the elite Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. Southwest Minnesota has 6 residence hall complexes on campus, as well as a new apartment complex for upperclassmen. There are different housing options, such as coed, reduced quiet hours, weekend programing complexes, and upcoming themed houses, plus academic suites are available for high achieving students.

I loved living in the dorms. I had so much fun, um, even with a roommate it wasn't bad at all. I got to meet so many people. If I was ever bored, I'd just walk down the hallway and go knock on doors.

Southwest has over 100 clubs and organizations for students to become involved in that range from academic to ethnic to special interest. There's a theater, choir, band, student government, and inter-mural sports or choose to build a relationship with the Marshall community through activities, internships, and apprenticeships. For student enjoyment, SMSU has a planetarium, an anthropology, and a natural history museum all right here on campus. These venues are also open to the public and help bring the Marshall community and the university together as one. So if you're looking for a private school atmosphere, where the cost won't leave you seeing stars, and with plenty of activities to dabble in, check out Southwest Minnesota State University.

Thanks for hanging out with me at Southwest Minnesota State University. It's where you belong.

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