Middle Tennessee State University Area Apartments for Rent

Founded as a teacher-training school in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro is now the oldest public university in its region, the second-largest institution of higher learning by enrollment and the largest undergraduate enrollment in Tennessee. Forbes magazine ranked MTSU among its top 100 public universities in 2009.

Middle Tennessee State University, or MTSU, has experienced phenomenal growth, expanding from its humble beginnings as a two-year teacher’s institution into a four-year Bachelor of Science program in 1925. The Doctor of Arts program was added in 1970 and the Specialist in Education in 1974. The university’s six schools became colleges in 1991, and in 1998, three Doctor of Philosophy programs expanded its offerings. As its programs expanded MTSU grew from an enrollment of 125 students on 100 acres to 25,000 students on 500 acres.

Two of the school’s attractions include the Tennessee Teachers Hall of Fame and the Center for Popular Music, a nationally-recognized repository of music with one of the largest sheet-music collections in the country. The Center for Popular Music is listed as one of the top 100 things to visit in Tennessee in the 20th century by the Tennessean.

The Department of Recording Industry, or RIM, is the university’s most popular program. The RIM program is divided into three concentrations: Music Business, Commercial Songwriting, and Production and Technology. The Rolling Stone College Guide ranked MTSU as having “one of the preeminent music business programs in the country.”

Some of MTSU’s most notable alumni include politician Albert Gore, Sr., Nobel Prize-winning economist James McGill Buchanan and country music artist Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum.