About CSU

CSU students learn to succeed

Columbus State University offers a student-centered environment about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Through engaging learning experiences, CSU aims to educate students for career and life success. Columbus State has enjoyed steady growth in recent years, enrolling more than 8,000 undergraduate and graduate students in fall 2008. The university offers more than 50 undergraduate and 35 graduate degrees.

“I like CSU because it isn’t too big. I’m here at a time when the campus is growing, so it is working to my advantage, but it isn’t so big that it’s intimidating like some of the bigger schools in Georgia.”
— Marianne Ward, junior (2006)

Since 1958, CSU has educated students who have gone on to become leaders at the local, state and national level. Our graduates played a major role in the success of a $100 million capital campaign that concluded in late 2005, paying tribute to what their CSU education meant to them and what they want it to mean to future generations.

“The CSU campaign is a wonderful example of the power of successful partnership between a university and a community … The results are astounding.”
— Kathryn Costello, consultant

CSU has also cultivated a reputation for extending its commitment to learning into the community, especially with the development of its RiverPark campus in downtown Columbus. CSU recently established the components of a world-class performing arts campus, including:

• Theatre on the Park, a new stage for students in CSU’s nationally recognized Department of Theatre. which relocated to the campus.
• Corn Center for the Visual Arts, the home of galleries that feature the work of visiting artists and students in CSU’s Department of Art, which also moved downtown.
• The Schwob School of Music, which moved into the RiverCenter, a state-of-the-art performing arts complex, when it opened in 2001.
• Two new apartment buildings for students and a parking garage to serve the RiverPark campus community and the public.

“This will complete the dream to make Columbus State University the premier music, art and drama school in the South.”
— Bill Turner, retired chairman of the W. C. Bradley Co.

At least three other outreach centers nearby — the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, the Coca-Cola Space Science Center and the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians — extend CSU’s reputation as a teaching university, offering learning opportunities for students as well as the public.

Boasting stellar faculty, impressive facilities and small class sizes (20:1 on average), CSU offers top-notch educational opportunities, including nationally accredited programs in art, nursing, music, theatre and teacher education. The university also offers a variety of online offerings and an extensive continuing education program.

“I get a lot of satisfaction out of working with a lot of first-generation students who didn’t know what to expect out of college.  It is really exciting to take kids like that and see them turn out as good – in some cases – as any students anywhere.”
— Dr. George Stanton, vice president for academic affairs

Students in all majors have opportunities beyond campus and enhance their traditional learning through internships, clinical experiences, cooperative education and field research alongside senior professors. CSU offers valuable service to the community and "real world" experience to its students by  collaborating on projects with a variety of business/industry, civic, arts and governmental partners.

“CSU provided study abroad scholarship money which allowed me to visit both Belize and Australia. Not only was I able to travel around the globe, but I was fortunate enough to have professors from the Biology Department accompanying me on those trips and on hand for instructional purposes.”
— Blayke Gibson, 2005 biology

Additional educational opportunities are available through special opportunities available to CSU students, such as our Honors Program, our heralded Servant Leadership Program and study abroad curriculum. CSU expects its students to provide the effort, enthusiasm and determination to make the most of their learning opportunities and the people who empower them to move in new directions. We promise challenges and inspiration, support and encouragement and an experience from not only your formal education, but also extracurricular activities, lifelong friends and an energetic college experience.

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