Montana State University will have over 4,000 students coming to Bozeman this week. As the campus comes alive, we spoke to MSU's Communications Executive Director Tracy Ellig about university life.

This year MSU is seeing an even bigger group of students coming to the university. People from California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington will be calling MSU home for the next few years.

Interesting enough, the average time it took for a student to get a degree was six years. Ellig explained when MSU President Waded Cruzado arrived, they wanted to come up with a way to get MSU students in and out in four years.

Ellig prased President Cruzado, who is now making it less expensive for a student who takes more then 12 credits a semester. If you just took 12 credits a semester, it would still take you over four years to get a degree. MSU now will give any student who takes more then 12 credits a very big cost savings. For credits 13, 14, and 15 your get a better deal.

Now MSU is back on track being a school that averages out a four-year degree. Ellig says that once a student takes more then 12 credits, not only do they finish faster, but they are getting better grades.

One problem that MSU reportedly had was a problem the school administrators were unaware of was caused by the school itself. New students who met with school counselors were being told take the first semester slowly, don't take too many credits at first, ease into the university. That was changed very fast and the new students are not being told to take their time the first few semesters.

MSU - good for Bozeman, good for Montana and good for students.

Dominick

Bobcat Fest 2013MSU photo by Kelly Gorham
KELLYGORHAM/MSU
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