re: What would be Mississippi State's overall reputation as a university be?

Mississippi State and Ole Miss complement each other quite well. State is great for agriculture, engineering, tech, and other niche sciences that aren't offered at some similar schools (meteorology, aerospace, etc). Ole Miss is great for law, medicine, and accounting (our accounting school is one of the best in the country). You can study just about anything in the state of Mississippi depending on what school you go to and get a good-to-great degree.