Fairmont State University is a public university located in Fairmont, West Virginia, USA. Enrollment of the university is about 7,700 and offers masters degrees in business, education, teaching, criminal justice and nursing in addition to 90 baccalaureate and 50 associate degrees. Fairmont State was founded as a private institution in 1865 in the basement of the Methodist Protestant Church at 418 Quincy Street. It was known as the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont and was dedicated to educating teachers. March 9, 1868, it was purchased by the state from the Regency of the West Virginia Normal School which had been formed in 1866. With this purchase, this private normal school became a branch of the State Normal School at Marshall College. From 1868 to 1892, the school was known variously as Fairmont Normal School, the Fairmont Branch of the West Virginia Normal School, the Branch of the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont, a branch of the West Virginia State Normal School at Marshall College, but most commonly as Fairmont State Normal School. By 1892 the designation of "branch" had fallen into disuse by FSNS.