Missouri S&T is a nationally ranked engineering and science university, and its compact, tree-lined campus is one of Rolla's best assets. The brick buildings date from the late nineteenth century when the school was founded as a mining academy, and the campus retains an agreeable sense of purpose: this is a place where people are working on real problems.
The campus is free to walk and worth exploring. The Leach Theatre hosts performances and public lectures throughout the academic year. The Edmund H. Dowd University Centre has a public café. Most strikingly, the campus is home to a working research nuclear reactor — the MSTR — which offers public tours by appointment. It is a swimming-pool type reactor, so visitors can look down through several metres of blue water at the glowing fuel rods.