Editing Missouri (section)

===Colleges and universities===
{{See also|List of colleges and universities in Missouri|List of defunct colleges and universities in Missouri}}
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The [[University of Missouri System]] is Missouri's statewide public university system. The flagship institution and largest university in the state is the [[University of Missouri]] in [[Columbia, Missouri|Columbia]]. The others in the system are [[University of Missouri–Kansas City]], [[University of Missouri–St. Louis]], and [[Missouri University of Science and Technology]] in [[Rolla, Missouri|Rolla]].

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the state established a series of [[normal school]]s in each region of the state, originally named after the geographic districts: Northeast Missouri State University (now [[Truman State University]]) (1867), Central Missouri State University (now the [[University of Central Missouri]]) (1871), [[Southeast Missouri State University]] (1873), Southwest Missouri State University (now [[Missouri State University]]) (1905), [[Northwest Missouri State University]] (1905), [[Missouri Western State University]] (1915), [[Maryville University]] (1872) and [[Missouri Southern State University]] (1937). [[Lincoln University (Missouri)|Lincoln University]] and [[Harris–Stowe State University]] were established in the mid-nineteenth century and are [[historically black colleges and universities]].

Among private institutions [[Washington University in St. Louis]] and [[Saint Louis University]] are two top ranked schools in the US.<ref>"[http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php America's Best Colleges 2008: National Universities: Top Schools.]" USNews.com: . January 18, 2008. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080730131502/http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php |date=July 30, 2008 }}</ref> There are numerous junior colleges, trade schools, church universities and other private universities in the state. [[A.T. Still University]] was the first [[osteopathic]] medical school in the world. [[Hannibal–LaGrange University]] in Hannibal, Missouri, was one of the first colleges west of the Mississippi (founded 1858 in LaGrange, Missouri, and moved to Hannibal in 1928).<ref>{{cite web |author=Don Colborn, PhD |url=http://www.hlg.edu/newsinfo/about.php |title=HLGU—About HLG |publisher=Hlg.edu |access-date=December 10, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111122153408/http://www.hlg.edu/newsinfo/about.php |archive-date=November 22, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The state funds a $3000, renewable merit-based scholarship, [[Bright Flight (Missouri scholarship)|Bright Flight]], given to the top three percent of Missouri high school graduates who attend a university in-state.

The 19th-century border wars between Missouri and Kansas have continued as a sports rivalry between the [[University of Missouri]] and [[University of Kansas]]. The rivalry was chiefly expressed through football and basketball games between the two universities, but since Missouri left the [[Big 12 Conference]] in 2012, the teams no longer regularly play one another. It was the oldest college rivalry west of the [[Mississippi River]] and the second-oldest in the nation. Each year when the universities met to play, the game was coined the "Border War". Following the game, an exchange occurred where the winner took a historic Indian War Drum, which had been passed back and forth for decades. Though Missouri and Kansas no longer have an annual game after the University of Missouri moved to the [[Southeastern Conference]], rivalry still exists between them.