Ball State University, commonly referred to as Ball State or BSU, is a public coeducational research university in Muncie, Indiana, United States, with two satellite facilities in Fishers and Indianapolis. On July 25, 1917, the Ball brothers, industrialists and founders of the Ball Corporation, acquired the foreclosed Indiana Normal Institute for $35,100 and gave the school and surrounding land to Indiana. The Indiana General Assembly accepted it in the spring of 1918, with an initial 235 students enrolling at the Indiana State Normal School – Eastern Division on June 17, 1918.

Ball State is classified by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as a high research activity university and a member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.

The university is composed of seven academic colleges, including the College of Architecture and Planning, the College of Communication, Information, and Media, the Miller College of Business, and Teachers College. Other institutions include Burris Laboratory School, the Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, and the Center for Business and Economic Research.

At Ball State, we're more than just educators—we're educational entrepreneurs. Combining top-flight talent with the top-notch resources we have to offer, our students and faculty inject endless energy and creativity into what they teach and how they learn. The result—a university The Princeton Review calls one of the best in the Midwest.

To fulfill our mission of fundamentally changing our students, researchers, and external partners, we offer comprehensive academic opportunities, including about 180 undergraduate majors and preprofessional programs and more than 100 master's and doctoral degrees. Our programs in architecture, telecommunications, landscape architecture, education, entrepreneurship, and online master’s degree in nursing are consistently ranked among the best in the nation.

That excellence is only possible because of the quality of our faculty and their commitment to teaching. More than 90 percent of our classes are taught by professors. That's almost unheard of at an institution of Ball State's size.