Montana State University sits on a large campus at the south end of Bozeman, and it shapes the character of the city in ways that are immediately obvious. The student population accounts for a significant fraction of the city's total residents, bringing with it coffee shops, bookstores, bars, and a year-round energy that most Montana cities lack.
The campus itself is pleasant to walk through. The older sandstone buildings date from the early twentieth century and have a solid, serious architecture suited to the mountain setting. The Museum of the Rockies sits on the campus edge. The Renne Library is open to the public and has good Montana history collections.
The agricultural research fields on the edge of campus reflect MSU's land-grant origins — it was founded in 1893 to provide practical education in agriculture and engineering, which it still does alongside its research programmes.