Welcome! Missouri State is a great school, and there's a huge group of international students there. You'll find a home.

Violence in Springfield is limited geographically. The Missouri State campus is very safe, and the surrounding area, though prone to property crime, does not experience much violent crime. Lock up your stuff and you'll be good.

I always tell people, don't do drugs, and don't stand between others and the drugs they want, and you're unlikely to find yourself in a violent situation.

Hope that helps.

I just made a post saying this exact thing, yeah Stay away from the drug scene and you’ll be ok, our bus system is kind of junk! If you live near msu it will be ok though. There are a lot of Indian students that live in the apartments around the Panera bread on national street, which I frequent. They all seem really nice and do their thing.

Something I would recommend if you can stomach it is joining the church crowd even if you aren’t interested in Christianity because they will accept you and help you out.

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Buy/always carry some pepper spray and avoid the downtown area late at night especially if you are walking (awesome during the day, gets dicey at night especially on weekends). Probably also avoid going to the north side of town when possible. There are pockets that are great but overall the northern part of town is much lower income/has higher random crime.

I have lived here my whole life (30) and I haven’t ever really had any big issues aside from a recent burglary/arson at my house and random meth heads being annoying. Being in an apartment and staying close to campus you should be fine/in no more danger than any other city.

**Edit to add I am not being classist against the north side, that is where i live so totally basing on personal experience lol

Don't do drugs, and if you do, pay your dealer promptly and in full. This is the beginning of wisdom.

You'll be okay, Springfield is honestly a pretty quiet town. Most of our crime is just meth related. I'm not sure if you guys have tweakers in India, but if you see an overly alert and skinny guy, just don't make eye contact and definitely don't talk to him. Follow that rule and you'll be fine.

I really hope you enjoy your time in Missouri. I've lived here my whole life, and I think we've got a couple good things on offer.

In my opinion, while you're in America, you need to try frozen custard, fried cheese curds, and the wonderful mess we refer to as Waffle House. If you listen to nothing else I say, please visit a Waffle House while you're in America.

Our babysitter is an international grad student (black woman) at MSU who also doesn't have a car and lives very close to / on campus. What the others have said is all true and valid.

A "15 min walk to uni" will leave you in some potentially uncomfortable neighborhoods if you're feeling alone.

Find an apartment on or very, very near campus.

After that, just brush up on your / form some street smarts: Carry pepper spray (and know how to use it! Buy a practice bottle if you've never used it before) if you're going to be walking alone at night; know your way around campus; safety in numbers (usually); etc...

If you're wanting to know about crime stats, use this tool (zoom into springfield and use the filters): https://communitycrimemap.com/?fbclid=IwAR3UvZQWdhpPo9boIwH9abLklo50PvcesTowH_79U18jZL0-cZ_ZrghyuBA

Hello I am a student here and it’s not bad at all. Same rules apply from where you’re from probably. If you have a bike lock it. Don’t walk alone at night. Don’t be scared by statistics. Ik it’s a huge difference and change coming here probably but it won’t be that bad. It’s not like you’ll get here and be like, man look at all this crime and violence lol. I’ve been here for 3 years and never experienced or seen it. I’ve had friends who’ve sometimes have but nothing serious. Just join orgs and clubs, make friends, find your place at school and it’ll be fine.

I think Springfield is very safe. Be selective on where you live. Some housing is in sketchy areas, a lot of it is not.

As a person that lives downtown west of Campbell, I'd suggest that you try not to live much further west than South Street. You will probably also need some warm clothes; the high tomorrow, for example, will be 14C.

The transit system used to be my only mode of transportation. I think a monthly bus pass for students is less than $25USD. It is okay once you understand that it can take two hours to get across town.

There is a free shuttle system called The Bear Line that has various routes downtown. See https://www.missouristate.edu/Transportation/BearLine/default.htm for more info. Looks like they have a smartphone app for it as well.

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And if you get a little bit out of the Springfield area, the frozen coffee at Quik Trip.

It's really not dangerous, missouri state actually just published an article about how skewed those statistics can be. https://news.missouristate.edu/2022/11/29/crime-data-accuracy/

This. Actually go look at the physical location a place is at prior to sending an email or calling someone about it. No rental place is gonna say “yeah, it’s pretty unsafe here, I wouldn’t keep valuables in your room”

And it's not even cold for around here yet. Here's a site that will show you average weather by month or season: https://weatherspark.com/s/10263/3/Average-Winter-Weather-in-Springfield-Missouri-United-States

These are averages, though, and there can be cold snaps.

And look at the neighboring areas, too. Bad neighborhoods travel.

That’s exactly what I mean. Rental and real estate places will do everything they can to make sure the pictures on their website look great. The meth house 3 doors down won’t be shown.

A buddy of mine is a cop in town and he described it kinda like this.

Most violent crime happens to people who got involved with other people who likely would do violent crime for their fix.

BUT if you have an unlocked bike it'll probably be stolen and if you have stuff in an unlocked car it'll probably be stolen.

Sadly I won’t eat at Waffle House food was good but I have went there 4 times since I was a kid and I’m 32 now and each time I have went there has either been a knot of hair or entire hairnets in my meal and that sadly ruined it doesn’t help that these where different waffle houses through the us including mo, Tennessee and nc if I remember correctly. If it wasn’t for that I would like it probably.

True, you can have a nice neighborhood two blocks from the hood; expect you’ll get robbed

It's not that bad actually. I don't know where you're coming from, but if it's a larger city you're probably going to find it much safer here than where you were.

I work at MSU and a lot of my friends work with international students (or are international themselves.) Check out the Morris Center if you haven't already, they can help a lot and you'll be in good company. Some cool people there. https://map.missouristate.edu/location.aspx?id=30

Here is the city of Springfield's officially tracked data. Click on "Violent Crimes" and download the heat map.

https://www.springfieldmo.gov/3257/Tracked-Data

Safety is relative to the individual and many people have lived here all their lives and are mostly white. Racism is a very real thing here. As a guess you'll probably be fine, especially on campus and in most places during the day. If you are low income and will need to live on the north side of town your results may vary.

I'm in the field of patient care and my client lives close to Kearney so im there no less than 40 hours a week. Kearney is legitimately scary on occasion, particularly at night.

I can’t say all, because that’s just not factual, but most of violent crime is personal. Just be diligent. Don’t smoke meth. Be smart about your belongings, and don’t put yourself in a bad situation. Welcome. :)

You're going to die /s

In all seriousness just use some common sense and you'll be fine. Follow the usual big city (of which Springfield is not) guidelines of avoiding walking on streets that are empty late at night, mind your surroundings, don't flash valuables. Since you'll be around campus mostly you'll be fairly safe. MSU has a pretty robust security team and the neighborhoods around that would be a 15 min walk are filled with college students and generally ok people.

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The worst they can do is kill you.

I’ve never had a problem…except the arson. But what’s a little arson between friends am I right?

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You’ll be very safe. Property crime is high, so if you ride a bike, buy a good lock and keep your bike locked or inside. But to be a victim of an actual violent crime(other than SA), it’s unlikely as a student if you’re staying near campus/downtown and being smart. Don’t walk alone at night, even if you’re a guy, and don’t stay out past bar close, if anything try to be home before midnight.

The buses will get you where you need to go.

I’ve talked to a lot of south Asian and middle eastern people who definitely do not feel safer in the US, specifically Missouri. Like the whole “always lock your door” thing was a culture shock.

I'm sure everyone will have differing experiences. Always locking my door would be a culture shock to me as well.

As someone who works and socializes with international staff and students at msu I feel confident in saying they'll be okay. Crime generally isn't as bad as those studies show here unless you're a part of it by choice and the op is moving into an environment where they'll have lots of support and fellow international students to help them learn their way around.

Oh I know they’ll be fine. I just always find it funny the different ways we look at each others home countries.

Where do you live that you’re not locking your door? I mean, car doors? Fuck that, rather just take out valuables than deal with a broken window. But I’ve had at least two people fidget with my door on the south ish side after midnight. They were probably just fucked up, but I’m not risking someone walking into my house.

That's just part of the authentic waffle house experience

You even lock doors while you're home? I leave the front door open whenever I'm home so my cat can give some stink eye to the neighbors cat. He does the same for his cat. Those cats sure hate each other. I usually lock my front door if I'm going to be gone more than a couple hours, and I lock my car overnight but that's about it. Haven't locked the back door in 20 years.

I'm sort of north central/east. I find it funny that this reddit group seems to view the parts of town I'm from as some sort of post apocalyptic wasteland full of meth fueled warlords. I tease my parents about that. They've lived in grant Beach for about 45 years. Also never had any problems. Most of the north side is lower income but that doesn't necessarily mean higher crime. There are certainly bad areas, but they're generally easy to spot and avoid.

In an ironic twist, much of our crime around this part of town takes place in hotels and businesses owned by persons from the subcontinent. My friend Rishi can tell some wild stories about n. Glenstone hotels he's worked at.