Montana State University
85%
Acceptance rate
$33,287
Tuition/yr
16,500
Enrollment
About Montana State University
Public research university in Montana. Strong engineering, agriculture, and business programs.
Montana State University (MSU) is Montana's flagship land-grant public university, founded in 1893 and located in Bozeman. It enrolls approximately 17,165 students (fall 2025) across nine colleges offering bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs. The Carnegie Classification designates MSU as an R1 Doctoral University with very high research activity, and it recorded $257.9 million in research expenditures in 2024.
MSU's academic strengths lie in engineering, agriculture, environmental sciences, and computing. The Gianforte School of Computing offers computer science and data science degrees. The College of Agriculture is built on the university's land-grant mission and conducts applied research through the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station. MSU also houses the Museum of the Rockies, which holds one of the largest T. Rex skull collections in the world, and runs a nationally distinctive MFA in Science and Natural History Filmmaking.
Bozeman sits at roughly 4,800 feet elevation on the edge of the Gallatin Valley, adjacent to Yellowstone National Park and major ski terrain. The 1,170-acre campus is compact and walkable. The city has grown rapidly into a technology and outdoor-industry hub, which has expanded local internship and employment options for students.
World University Rankings
Campus & Location
MT
Suburban
Optional Practical Training (OPT)
All graduates qualify for 12-month OPT. STEM-designated programs (CS, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, Sciences) qualify for 24-month STEM OPT extension — 36 months total work authorisation.
For Nepali students
- MSU offers merit-based scholarships specifically for international undergraduates ranging from $5,000 to $12,000 per year, awarded automatically at admission based on GPA, a tangible cost offset on an out-of-state tuition of approximately $33,287 per year.
- Engineering, computer science, and data science programs at MSU qualify for the 3-year STEM OPT extension under U.S. immigration rules, giving Nepali graduates up to three additional years of work authorization in the U.S. beyond the standard 12-month OPT period.
- MSU's R1 research status means substantial graduate research assistantship funding is available, which can significantly reduce the cost of a master's or doctoral degree for academically strong Nepali applicants, particularly in agriculture, environmental science, and engineering fields relevant to Nepal's development context.
- The university's relatively moderate cost of living in Bozeman, combined with its on-campus and off-campus work opportunities, makes it a more affordable option than coastal research universities of similar standing.
Admission requirements — Nepali equivalents
A rough translation of the published minimums for Nepali applicants:
Use our GPA converter to translate your exact score to the 4.0 scale.
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