The Honors College for academically talented and gifted students enrolls more than 450 students and has a 100 percent record of placing students in graduate and professional schools. The university's School of Business is among a select group of only 25 percent of schools nationwide accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. JSU is one of only two HBCUs offering a program in marine science and is the only HBCU in Mississippi offering a doctorate in early childhood education and environmental science. With more than 30 research facilities and programs in the areas of health and biomedicine, business, education, social and behavioral sciences, science and technology, and urban issues, the university is fostering an environment conducive to the free exchange of ideas through the creation, application and transmission of knowledge. Known as one of the leading Geographic Information Systems research installations in the region, the JSU facility was the first of its type at an HBCU specializing in this emerging technology.
Students can take advantage of extracurricular activities to enhance their academic study.
JSU students participate in the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, allowing them an opportunity to present papers on their research and interact with other student and professional researchers. Jackson State had the first undergraduate program in meteorology among the nation's HBCUs and is the only undergraduate program in professional meteorology in the state. JSU meteorology graduate Vivian Brown is a meteorologist with The Weather Channel in Atlanta. The conference allows students the unique opportunity to participate in the exchange of current research findings and ideas in the major areas of computational chemistry. All are designed to give students hands-on broadcast, print and electronic media production experience.