History - Oklahoma State University was founded on December 25, 1890, as Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, just twenty months after the Land Run of 1889. In 1896, Oklahoma A&M held its first commencement with six male graduates. On July 1, 1957, Oklahoma A&M College became Oklahoma State University.  OSU is now nationally recognized as a large, land grant, comprehensive research university.

Location - OSU is located in Stillwater, a north-central Oklahoma community with a population of more than 42,000. Among 634 small cities in the nation, 141 of those cities were classified as dream towns by the online publication Demographics Daily. Stillwater is No. 6 of the 141 dream towns, and it also received the "Most Wired City Award" from Yahoo.com. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics, OSU Stillwater campus is the safest campus in the Big 12. Stillwater is approximately 60 miles from the Tulsa and Oklahoma City metropolitan areas and is readily accessible from other major population centers from highway and air.

Ranking: OSU is 2006 Top 50 Public Research University voted by the Center of Measuring University Performance. This ranking is based on US rankings for institutions that have more than $20 million in federal expenditures in a given year. OSU is classified as a Research University with high research activity by the Carnegie Foundation. OSU is also among America’s best value colleges rated by Princeton Review. OSU’s Engineering Program is also constantly ranked well among Ph.D. granting institutions in the US News and World Reports on Educational Institutions.

Library - The OSU library has 2.1 million volumes, 1.3 million government documents, 18 thousand magazine subscriptions, and 3.7 million microfilms. The library in OSU  is a member of Association of Research Libraries (ARL)  which comprises 120 leading research libraries in North America. Covering six acres of floor space, the OSU library is one of the largest and most modern in the Southwest. It was one of the first major university libraries in the United States to make stacks open to all users.