Mission: Middle Tennessee State University is a comprehensive university that embraces its role as the destination of choice for Tennessee undergraduates while expanding its reach nationally and internationally through signature programs and select masters and doctoral programs. The University generates, preserves, and disseminates knowledge and innovation and uses scholarship to enhance teaching and public service. The University is committed to preparing students to thrive in their chosen professions and a changing global society. To fulfill its mission, Middle Tennessee State University fosters a student-centered environment conducive to lifelong learning, personal development, and success; offers a broad array of high quality, affordable academic programs grounded in a common core of arts and sciences; enhances access and academic opportunity for a diverse student population, including distance learning and other special services and programs for first generation, non-traditional, high-achieving, and transfer students; challenges students through diverse teaching methods and media including educational technology, experiential learning, undergraduate and graduate research, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities; recruits exceptional faculty and develops resources to support excellence in instruction, research, creative activity, and public and professional service; develops and sustains academic partnerships, entrepreneurial activities, outreach and public service that support instruction and research and that meet the needs of communities throughout the region; and serves as an emerging center for international study, understanding, and exchange. Unique Qualities: MTSU attracts a very diverse, largely full-time undergraduate student population with a broad range of academic preparedness. The University is committed to helping each student recognize their academic promise and achieve academic success, and it annually confers more bachelors degrees than any other Tennessee Board of Regents institution. Most recently, the University renewed and highlighted its commitment to student success as its number one priority in its Quest for Student Success initiative. Undergraduates are prepared for professional practice in fields such as education, business, mass communication, and nursing, and the University Honors College and various degree programs prepare students for graduate education. MTSUs signature experiential learning program delivers a value added undergraduate education grounded in experiences such as undergraduate research, service learning and civic engagement. MTSU has selected graduate offerings that primarily target education, business, and the applied and behavioral sciences with research focused primarily in the sciences, aviation, public history, and STEM. MTSUs holds the elective Carnegie Community Engagement classification with its outreach and partnership activities centered on meeting the needs of the middle Tennessee region. The University has always had a large number of "first generation" college students, and students who are self-supporting. For these reasons MTSU is an exceptional school for students who have demanding personal situations, transfer students, and other non-traditional students.