North Dakota State University (NDSU, formally North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) is a public land-grant research university in Fargo, North Dakota. It was founded as North Dakota Agricultural College in 1890 as the state's land-grant university. As of 2021, NDSU offers 94 undergraduate majors, 146 undergraduate degree programs, 5 undergraduate certificate programs, 84 undergraduate minors, 87 master's degree programs, 51 doctoral degree programs of study, and 210 graduate certificate programs.[4] It is classified among "R1-Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity".[5]
NDSU is part of the North Dakota University System. The university also operates North Dakota's agricultural research extension centers distributed across the state on 18,488 acres (74.82 km2). In 2015, NDSU's economic impact on the state and region was estimated to be $1.3 billion a year according to the NDUS Systemwide Economic Study by the School of Economics at North Dakota State University.[6][7] As of 2022, it was also the sixth-largest employer in the state of North Dakota.[8]
The bill founding North Dakota Agricultural College (NDAC) was signed on March 8, 1890, one year after North Dakota became a state and seven years after initial plans to start an agricultural college in the northern portion of the Dakota Territory.[9] NDAC was established as North Dakota's land-grant institution.[10]
On October 15, 1890, Horace E. Stockbridge became the first NDAC president and the board of trustees was formed.[11] Classes were initially held in six classrooms rented from Fargo College. The first class of students were admitted on September 8, 1891. College Hall (Old Main) was completed in 1892 and was the first building on campus.[11]
In 1908, the school's alma mater "The Yellow and The Green" was written and a year later the school's official colors, Yellow and Green, were selected.[9] In 2015 a change was made where only the first verse of the alma mater is recognized by the university, due to ethnic references in the third stanza.[12]
NDAC continued to grow and was renamed North Dakota State University on November 8, 1960, after a statewide referendum.[13] The name change was to reflect the increasing field of study breadth of the institution.[9]