Students entered MSU-Bozeman in fall of 1997 from all 56 counties in Montana, all states in the U.S., and 66 foreign countries. For further information on the distribution of students by geographic origin, see Montana students by county , US students by state , and foreign students by country under Trend Data. Past distributions of the student population by ethnicity are also available under Trend Data. The average age of traditional freshmen was 18.2 years, and the average age of nontraditional freshmen was 25.5 years. The following averages were achieved by the traditional freshmen.
Historical averages are also available.
A third of the freshmen entered as General Studies majors, a program which gives them up to two years to take core curriculum courses and explore career alternatives before declaring a major. Retention and graduation rates for recent entering freshmen classes are also available. Actual fees paid may vary based on the number of credits carried each semester. All fees are subject to change without notice. These figures are an average of costs incurred by students living on campus in a residence hall and off campus in a shared apartment.