OSU offers more than undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees through all 11 colleges. It has the seventh-largest engineering college in the nation In , over 37, students were enrolled at OSU, making it the largest university in the state. Out-of-state students typically make up over one-quarter of the student body.
Since its founding, over , students have graduated from OSU. Initially chartered as a land-grant university, OSU became one of the four inaugural members of the sea grant program in The university's roots date to , when it was founded as a primary and preparatory community school known as Corvallis Academy.
The school's first administrator and teacher was John Wesley Johnson , a famous figure in Oregon higher education. Johnson received his secondary education in Corvallis and his undergraduate from Pacific University before working at the new academy. He later attended Yale University and became an instrumental figure in the development and administration of several other early Oregon colleges. As with many land-grant colleges, name changes were common around the start of the 20th century and helped schools align with the period's largest available federal grants in agricultural research.
Corvallis area Freemasons played a leading role in developing the early school. Several of the university's largest buildings are named after these early founders.
On August 22, , the official articles of incorporation were filed for Oregon State University, known then as Corvallis College. Two months later, on October 27, , OSU was chartered as the state's first public college. To help ensure the state's sole public college would be well funded, the Oregon Legislative Assembly designated it Oregon's Land-grant university and the "agricultural college of the state of Oregon".
