About us

Oregon State is an international public research university that draws people from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. We go wherever the challenges are, push ourselves to the very edge of what’s known and keep going. We are determined to forge solutions. We are diverse and welcoming. We embrace our responsibility to Oregon and the world, building a future that’s smarter, healthier, more prosperous and more just. We see what could be and have worked relentlessly for 150 years to make it so. 

The university's roots date to 1856 when it was founded as a primary and preparatory community school known as Corvallis Academy. The school's first teacher and the principal were John Wesley Johnson, a famous figure in Oregon higher education. Johnson received his secondary education in Corvallis before working at the new academy. He later attended Yale University and was instrumental in developing other Oregon colleges. Within a decade of its inception, college-level coursework was added to the academy's curriculum, making it the first public college in the region and a magnet for Oregon's young adults seeking a profession. The university has had 11 names since opening, eight of them during the 1800s. Like many of today's land-grant colleges and universities, name changes were common during this period and helped schools better align themselves with some of the largest available grants in agricultural research.