The Missouri Academy was established in August 2000. The first class of students, the Pathfinders, enrolled in the fall of 2000 and graduated in May 2002.

Northwest Missouri State University, proposed the Missouri Academy as one of the Mission Enhancement Projects presented to the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education (CBHE) in the mid-1990's.

The long-term goal of the Missouri Academy is to expand and accommodate a maximum total of about 240-250 highly qualified students; hopefully 80-85% of these students will be from Missouri, and 15-20% from other states and abroad.

The Missouri Academy students live in North Complex (Cooper Hall and Douglas Hall), specially re-designed residence facility on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University. Please refer to the Northwest Missouri State University campus map to view location of North Complex. Boys and girls have separate living spaces within this residential facility.

The residence hall of the Missouri Academy (North Complex) is designed to provide a safe and healthy environment for the students. The Director of Student Development is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the residential halls, and facilitates the development, implementation, and assessment of all student development systems. Residential Counselors (RC's) live on the floors with the students. RC's are full-time employees who act as mentors and confidantes. They facilitate the students' personal, social, emotional and academic growth.

Missouri Academy students are expected to follow the rules and regulations in the Northwest Student Handbook, plus additional policies defined in the Missouri Academy Student-Parent Handbook. There are curfews, sign-in and sign-out policies, defined off-limit areas both on and off campus, a zero tolerance policy on alcohol and drug abuse, Missouri Academy students are not allowed to own cars on campus, etc. Our expectations for Missouri Academy students can be summarized as: we would like you to contribute positively to the living and learning environment at the Missouri Academy.

The University provides one notebook personal computer (PC) to each on campus resident. Students are allowed to bring their own PC to campus if they choose. A black and white laser printer and additional PC's are available to Missouri Academy students in the Computer Lab on the first floor of the residence hall. Recreational use of personal computers should not take precedence over or interfere with a student's academics. If non-academic use of a computer is deemed to be interfering with a student's success at the Missouri Academy, computer use could be restricted. Networking access of computers located in the Missouri Academy is terminated at midnight and restarted at 6:00 am.

The Notebook PC's for Missouri Academy students have the following specifications:

• HP model 6455
• AMD Phenom II Dual core N620 (2.8 GHz) processors
• 160GB Hard disk drive
• 3GB RAM memory
• DVD burner
• ATI Radeon HD 4250 Graphics
• 56k Modem
• Integrated Intel 10/100/1000 Network Interface
• 3 USB, 1 firewire, 1 eSata/USB,  headphone/microphone
• 14.1" widescreen LCD monitor
• 6 in 1 media card reader
• Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/n wireless nic
• 6 cell battery
• Microsoft Windows 7 professional (Operating system)
• Microsoft Office 2010 professional (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access)
• Internet Explorer 8

Personally provided hardware devices (printer, zip-drive, scanners, etc.) must be compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and must connect to the computer via USB, parallel or serial ports. All personal PC's must be registered with client computing prior to being connected to the campus network and must have up to date antivirus protection. Various how to guides, policy statements, and specifications are available at the Client Computing web site.

Telephone services are available on a contracted basis. Students are allowed to have cell phones and are welcome to keep them 24-hours a day unless the parent requests otherwise.

Each Missouri Academy student is on the Aladine meal plan. On this plan, students have the freedom to eat at any of the Campus Dining locations.

Various shops in the Food Court in the Student Union include:

• Papa John's Pizza
• Freshens
• Good 4U
• Noodles
• Quizno's
• Zoca
• Salad Garden
• Wok
• Cranberry Farms
• Grille Works
• Tmmy. Ymmys.
• Kettle Classics
• Express

Also located in the Student Union are The Runt and Java City. New to campus is JW's Grille which is a casual dining restaurant that opened in the fall of 2006. Outside the Union students can visit Java City at The Station, and C3 convenience stores at The Station, the Garrett-Strong Science Building or at Forest Village Apartments or have their meal delivered from the Pizza Hut. The Bearcat Card functions as a meal card and must be presented at each meal. It also can be used for pizza deliveries. With all these choices, Campus Dining offers something to suit everyone's taste. A fully furnished kitchen in the residence hall is also available for students if they choose to cook.

Washers and dryers are provided on the first floor of the residence hall. Students are responsible for laundry supplies. There is no cost to use a washing machine or dryer. The Missouri Academy does not provide linen services.

University Wellness Services is located on campus. Wellness Services is committed to quality outpatient care. They focus on wellness, not only as a prevention of disease, but also as a philosophy of life. This philosophy emphasizes self-responsibility and taking an active role in maintaining one's health. Presentations on a variety of healthy topics are offered to the student.

Wellness Services provides health care in a clinic setting to all students. Nurses, a woman's health nurse practitioner and a medical doctor staff the clinic. Wellness Services's hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and, except for emergencies, patients are seen by appointment only.

Tuition includes the university health fee and covers the consultation, diagnosis and care recommended by the professional staff. In some cases the nurse can handle a problem either through special training and protocols and/or brief consultation with the physician. In some cases, students are seen by the nursing staff and the physician. The health fee does not cover medication, laboratory tests or procedures. Fees for these services and medication may be billed to the student's account or are payable at the time of the visit.

The health fee provides for a broad range of services provided outside of the traditional office visits including heath education prevention and management of communicable diseases, coordination of peer education programs and other activities. For more information, please contact Wellness Services at (660) 562-1348.

International students are required to purchase health care insurance through Northwest Missouri State University.

Students are permitted to form and join groups of common purposes, which are consistent with the philosophy, rules and regulations of the Missouri Academy and that are open to all members of the Missouri Academy Student Body. Students have a responsibility to conduct the activities of the organization in a manner that reflects compatibility with the curriculum of the Missouri Academy. Each club must be approved by the Director of Student Development, and must also have a faculty/staff advisor. Students also have access to membership in many of the Northwest campus organizations. The Director of Student Development must approve membership in a Northwest organization. Missouri Academy students cannot join fraternities or sororities nor attend their functions. NCAA regulations negate Missouri Academy students from joining Northwest Missouri State University athletic teams. Examples of clubs in which Missouri Academy students normally participate include: Northwest Student Affiliate of the American Chemical Society, Pre-Med Club, Stargazers Astronomy Club, Psychology/Sociology Society, International Student Organization and Alliance of Black Collegians - there are many more.

Intramural and wellness activities are offered as part of University and Missouri Academy programming and may include such activities as basketball, billiards, chess, card and other table games, golf, soccer, table tennis, volleyball, tennis, a 5K run, and Frisbee. Other events may be added as student interest indicates. To participate in MASMC sponsored activities see the Missouri Academy Student Activities Coordinator. To participate in University intramural activities, determined to be safe for Missouri Academy students by the Director of the University Intramural Program, and to use the campus recreation center, a signed parental permission form is required. The student Recreation Center is available for all students to utilize on a drop-in basis. Some activities are basketball, volleyball, walleyball, racquetball, and walking/jogging on a suspended track. The University Fitness Center is available to students who choose to purchase a student membership.

Yes. Missouri Academy students will sit side-by-side with traditional university students and take the same college courses - and professors have the same expectations of high academic performance for all students. The overall curriculum and course load are more rigorous - all courses are taught by the Northwest professors with terminal degrees in their disciplines. After the first trimester, qualified Missouri Academy students will be allowed to take electives, which may be any course offered at Northwest, provided prerequisites are met. Since there will be only a small number of Missouri Academy students and they will probably take a wide variety of courses, there is no way to know if a Missouri Academy student will be in any particular class.

Free math and science tutors are available. All services, including tutoring services, provided by Northwest are available to students at the Missouri Academy. These services can be found at the Talent Development Center, the Writing Center, and the Math Lab. Some academic departments also have tutors designated to help with specific classes. In addition, tutors for selected classes are available at the Missouri Academy during scheduled study hours.

Yes, students can take classes in music, foreign languages, philosophy, art, and economics as general electives. However, required courses take first priority in scheduling for classes. Students may not take any electives during their first trimester at the Missouri Academy. The only exception to this policy is for courses that are taken as an activity credit, for example, Marching Band. The course and grade appear on the official Northwest transcript. However, the grade assigned to an activity credit is not used in the computation of the grade point average. A number of students participate in Marching Band, Symphonic Band and Orchestra while at the Missouri Academy.

Most beginning students in their first trimester take General Biology, Chemistry I, English Composition I, Pre-Calculus and Freshman Seminar (see below). However, students are allowed to test out of Pre-Calculus and Chemistry I, for higher level courses. Students can take courses that depart from the typical scheduled/required courses at the recommendation of the Missouri Academy Director of Student Achievement.

Typical Fall Class Schedule for a Beginning Student