At a Glance
Michigan State admits 83.2% of applicants.
What You'll Actually Pay
See what families at different income levels actually pay after aid.
What families actually pay, by income level
After grants and scholarships. Before loans. Public school prices shown at in-state rates.
Source: College Scorecard / IPEDS, 2024-25
Where the Sticker Price Goes
Based on average need-based grant. Actual cost varies by family income — see chart above.
Shown at in-state rates.
Debt at Graduation
30.7%
receive need-based grant aid
$31,468
average debt at graduation
Michigan State graduates carry an average of $31,468 in debt.
Merit Aid
3,691
students received merit aid
$6,189
average merit award
Getting In
Michigan State admits 83.2% of applicants.
SAT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 52% of the class submitted
ACT — Middle 50% of those who submitted · 7% of the class submitted
20.2% were in the top 10% of their high school class.
What They Value
Academic
Nonacademic
Michigan State University considers your essay Important — a strong essay can differentiate an otherwise average application. Demonstrated interest is Considered — showing genuine engagement with this school may help your application.
Student Life
Class size distribution not reported by these schools' Common Data Sets.
Share of undergraduate class sections at each size, from CDS Section I-3. More red = more large lectures.
Michigan State data pending.
Class size data reflects all undergraduate sections including labs, seminars, and lectures. Large research universities often have smaller upper-division and graduate-level sections that improve the overall distribution. First and second-year students typically experience larger classes than these averages suggest.
Source: Common Data Set 2025–26, Section I-3 (class sizes)
17:1
student:faculty ratio
Campus Life
From out of state (freshman class)
18.8%
Live on campus
40%
Men in fraternities
12%
Women in sororities
13%
Who Attends
Racial and ethnic breakdown of enrolled undergraduates, as reported in each school's Common Data Set. "Unknown / Other" includes students who did not report or selected "other."
Michigan State's student body is 67% white.
Popular Majors
Will They Graduate?
Michigan State graduates 62% of students in 4 years.
Graduating late means paying for extra semesters. The 6-year rate tells you who eventually finishes — the 4-year rate tells you what it actually costs.
Michigan State graduates 62% of students in 4 years.
What finishing late actually costs
Based on each school's published cost of attendance. Public school costs shown at in-state rates.
Michigan State
62%
4-yr grad rate
Extra year cost: $32,198*
* In-state cost of attendance. Out-of-state students pay significantly more.
Graduation rate data from Common Data Set 2025–26, Fall 2018 cohort (most recent available). 4-year rate = students completing in 4 years or less. 6-year rate = students completing within 6 years.
81%
Overall 6-yr rate
71.6%
Pell recipient rate
A 9.4 point graduation gap between lower-income and overall students suggests financial or academic challenges for some students.
Freshman Retention
90.5%
90.5% of first-year students return for sophomore year.
City & Culture
Beyond the data — what it's actually like to spend four years in East Lansing.
East Lansing is a college town in the fullest sense — the university is the reason it exists, and during term the student body outnumbers the permanent population. Grand River Avenue runs along the north edge of campus and supplies the bars, restaurants and shops; the state capital, Lansing, is three miles west and is where the internships and the non-student jobs are. The campus itself is unusually green for its size, with 5,200 acres, an arboretum-grade tree collection and the Red Cedar River through the middle. What you get is a self-contained, walkable, intensely social version of college. What you do not get is a big city, and winters are long.
Notable Alumni
Eli Broad
Built two Fortune 500 companies from nothing and became one of the largest philanthropists in American education and the arts; MSU's business college carries his name.
Class of 1954
Richard Ford
Novelist who won both the Pulitzer Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Independence Day, the only writer to take both for the same book.
Class of 1966
Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Led Michigan State to the 1979 national championship before five NBA titles with the Lakers, and has since built a substantial business and investment career.
Gretchen Whitmer
Governor of Michigan, who earned both her undergraduate degree and her law degree here.
Class of 1993
Sam Raimi
Director of the Evil Dead films and the original Spider-Man trilogy, who began making films while studying here.
Alumni selected for name recognition and range of fields. Not from the Common Data Set.
The City
College town
East Lansing, MI
Best For
Traditions
Sparty
The nine-foot Spartan statue dedicated in 1945, originally in terra cotta and recast in bronze in 2005. It is the campus's photograph, meeting point and rallying spot, and it gets guarded by students before rivalry games.
The Beaumont Tower carillon
A 49-bell carillon in the 1929 tower at the heart of the old campus, played every Wednesday at noon during term. The tower stands on the site of the first building of the first land-grant college in the country, and campus legend holds that a couple who kiss in its shadow become true Spartans.
The Izzone
The student section at the Breslin Center, named for basketball coach Tom Izzo — students camp for spots, learn the routines, and it is one of the loudest environments in college basketball.
The Rock
A boulder on Farm Lane repainted constantly by students and organizations, who camp overnight to claim it. It has been painted thousands of times over and is the campus's rolling noticeboard.
Weekend Escapes
Within driving distance from East Lansing
Detroit
1.5 hoursThe nearest big city, with the pro sports, museums and music that East Lansing does not have.
Grand Rapids
1 hourMichigan's second city — breweries, art and a cheaper weekend than Detroit.
Lake Michigan beaches
2 hoursGrand Haven, Saugatuck and the dunes along the western shore — the standard Michigan summer weekend.
Ann Arbor
1 hourThe rival campus and a genuinely good college town in its own right.
Traverse City and northern Michigan
3.5 hoursCherry country, Sleeping Bear Dunes and the closest thing to a proper holiday drive — a long-weekend trip rather than a day out.
Getting There & Game Days
Nearest airport
Capital Region International Airport (LAN)
15 minutes from campus
For international flights: Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW) — about 1 hour 20 minutes by road.
Pro sports nearby
- Detroit Lions NFL
- Detroit Tigers MLB
- Detroit Pistons NBA
- Detroit Red Wings NHL
Career Proximity
Michigan State's career reach comes from two places its geography hands it. The first is the state capital three miles west, which makes government, policy and public-health internships an ordinary commute rather than a summer relocation. The second is the automotive and mobility corridor around Detroit, ninety minutes east, where the engineering and supply-chain programs have decades of pipeline into Ford, GM and Stellantis — and MSU's supply chain management program in particular is recruited nationally rather than regionally. Agriculture, food science and veterinary work draw on the land-grant network across the whole state.
Top Industries Nearby
Major Employers
- General Motors
- Ford Motor Company
- Sparrow Health System
- State of Michigan
- Auto-Owners Insurance
Lansing, the state capital — about 10 minutes west; metro Detroit is roughly 90 minutes away
Who Thrives Here
Michigan State is a land-grant campus of 5,200 acres with the Red Cedar River running through the middle of it, and at 41,415 undergraduates it functions as a small city: 40% live in university housing, which at this scale means one of the largest residence systems in the country. Greek life takes 12% of men and 13% of women, so it shapes a slice of social life rather than the whole of it; the carillon in Beaumont Tower ringing at noon and the Izzone student section filling the Breslin Center are the more universal versions of belonging here. It is a genuinely accessible school — 83.2% of applicants admitted, 76.9% of undergraduates from Michigan — and the gap between $17,256 in-state and $44,640 out-of-state tuition and fees is the single number that decides whether it is a bargain for a given family. Outcomes hold up at this size: 90.5% of first-years return, 62% finish in four years and 81% in six. The caution is money. Michigan State meets 61% of demonstrated need, borrowers graduate owing $31,468, and Pell recipients finish within six years at 71.6% — nearly ten points behind the 81% overall, which is what an aid shortfall looks like in an outcome.