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Michigan State University Data & Information Overview

435 awards Ranking Badges
Great Price Value for Your Money
83% Acceptance Rate
Find out more about how Michigan State University ranks, how diverse it is, what majors it offers, and other essential facts below.
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How Well Is Michigan State University Ranked?

#74 Best Colleges in Nation
#2 Best Colleges in MI
General Human Resources Management/Personnel Administration Highest Ranked Major
Quality Badge

2024 Rankings

In its yearly rankings, College Factual analyzes over 2,000 colleges and universities to determine which ones are the best in a variety of categories, such as overall value, quality, diversity, which schools are the best for each major, and much more.

Michigan State University was awarded 435 badges in the 2024 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is general human resources management/personnel administration.

Explore Best Ranked Schools for You

Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.

Overall Quality

Michigan State landed the #74 spot in College Factual's 2024 ranking of best overall colleges in the United States. The higher ed experts analyzed 2,217 colleges and universities across the nation to determine this ranking. This puts it in the top 5% of all schools in the nation. This is an improvement over the previous year, when Michigan State held the #88 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.

Michigan State is also ranked #2 out of 57 schools in Michigan.

See all of the rankings for Michigan State University.

Is It Hard to Get Into Michigan State?

83% Acceptance Rate
55% Of Accepted Are Women
48% Submit SAT Scores

Acceptance Rate

The acceptance rate at Michigan State University is 83%. That's higher than the rate at many schools, but still low enough to be considered somewhat selective. If you want to get in, you'll need good grades and to be able to show that Michigan State is a good fit for you.

Average Test Scores

About 48% of students accepted to Michigan State submitted their SAT scores. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, SAT Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores ranged between 550 and 650. Math scores were between 550 and 670.

SAT Reading and Writing Scores for Michigan State University  ( 550 to 650 )
200
800

SAT Math Scores for Michigan State University  ( 550 to 670 )
200
800
Michigan State received ACT scores from 16% of accepted students. When looking at the 25th through the 75th percentile, ACT Composite scores ranged between 23 and 29.

ACT Composite Scores for Michigan State University  ( 23 to 29 )
1
36

Learn more about Michigan State University admissions.

Michigan State University Faculty

16 to 1 Student to Faculty
88% Full Time Teachers

Student to Faculty Ratio

The student to faculty ratio is often used to estimate how much interaction there is between professors and their students at a college or university. At Michigan State University, this ratio is 16 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.

Percent of Full-Time Faculty

When estimating how much access students will have to their teachers, some people like to look at what percentage of faculty members are full time. This is because part-time teachers may not have as much time to spend on campus as their full-time counterparts.

The full-time faculty percentage at Michigan State University is 88%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.

Full-Time Faculty Percent  88 out of 100
0
100

Retention and Graduation Rates at Michigan State University

92% Freshmen Retention
56% On-Time Graduation Rate

Freshmen Retention Rate

Michigan State University has a freshmen retention rate of 92%. That's a good sign that full-time students like the school and their professors enough to want to stick around for another year. It's also a sign that the admissions team did a good job in choosing applicants who were a good fit for the school.

Freshmen Retention Rate  92 out of 100
0
100

Graduation Rate

Students are considered to have graduated on time if they finish their studies within four years. At Michigan State the on-time graduation rate of first-time, full-time students is 56%. That is great when compared to the national average of 33.3%

On-Time Graduation Rate  56 out of 100
0
100

Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Michigan State University.

Michigan State University Undergraduate Student Diversity

34,588 Full-Time Undergraduates
24.0% Racial-Ethnic Minorities*
51.9% Percent Women

During the 2017-2018 academic year, there were 38,491 undergraduates at Michigan State with 34,588 being full-time and 3,903 being part-time.

How Much Does Michigan State University Cost?

$19,058 Net Price
36% Take Out Loans
$30,884 Total Student Loans
The overall average net price of Michigan State is $19,058. The affordability of the school largely depends on your financial need since net price varies by income group. See the table below for the net price for different income groups.

Net Price by Income Group for Michigan State

$0-30 K $30K-48K $48-75 $75-110K $110K +
$6,927 $15,170 $20,557 $25,297 $27,534

The net price is calculated by adding tuition, room, board and other costs and subtracting financial aid.Note that the net price is typically less than the published for a school. For more information on the sticker price of Michigan State, see our tuition and fees and room and board pages.

Student Loan Debt

While almost two-thirds of students nationwide take out loans to pay for college, the percentage may be quite different for the school you plan on attending. At Michigan State, approximately 36% of students took out student loans averaging $7,721 a year. That adds up to $30,884 over four years for those students.

The student loan default rate at Michigan State is 2.6%. This is significantly lower than the national default rate of 10.1%, which is a good sign that you'll be able to pay back your student loans.

Get more details about paying for Michigan State University.

How Much Money Do Michigan State Graduates Make?

$61,101 Avg Salary of Grads
High Earnings Boost
Although some majors pay more than others, students who graduate from Michigan State with a bachelor's degree go on to jobs where they make an average salary of $61,101 in their early years. That's great news for Michigan State students since it is 44% more than the average college graduate's salary of $42,485 per year.

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See which majors at Michigan State University make the most money.

Location of Michigan State University

Michigan State
34,588 Full-Time Undergraduates
Small City Campus Setting
Michigan State University is a public institution situated in East Lansing, Michigan. The surrounding area of the school is a good match for students who enjoy city life.

Get more details about the location of Michigan State University.

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Contact details for Michigan State are given below.

Contact Details
Phone: 517-355-1855
Website: https://www.msu.edu/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spartans.msu
Twitter: https://twitter.com/michiganstateu

Michigan State University Majors

131 Majors With Completions
9,189 Undergraduate Degrees
4,069 Graduate Degrees
During the most recent year for which we have data, students from 131 majors graduated from Michigan State University. Of these students, 9,189 received undergraduate degrees and 4,069 graduated with a master's or doctor's degree. The following table lists the most popular undergraduate majors along with the average salary graduates from those majors make.

Most Popular Majors Bachelor’s Degrees Average Salary of Graduates
Public Relations & Advertising 565 $38,973
Communication & Media Studies 506 $37,107
General Biology 477 $23,885
Business Administration & Management 468 $61,667
Health & Physical Education 388 $28,154
Finance & Financial Management 343 $61,907
Economics 343 $48,199
General Psychology 336 $27,682
Mechanical Engineering 279 $71,321
Computer Information Systems 274 $76,292

Learn more about the majors offered at Michigan State University along with which ones have the highest average starting salaries.

Online Learning at Michigan State

76% Take At Least One Class Online
8% Take All Classes Online

Online courses area a great option for busy, working students as well as for those who have scheduling conflicts and want to study on their own time. As time goes by, expect to see more and more online learning options become available.

In 2020-2021, 37,514 students took at least one online class at Michigan State University. This is a decrease from the 45,588 students who took online classes the previous year.

Year Took at Least One Online Class Took All Classes Online
2020-2021 37,514 3,988
2019-2020 45,588 40,974
2018-2019 13,163 2,223
2017-2018 11,469 2,196
2016-2017 12,002 2,243

Learn more about online learning at Michigan State University.

If you’re considering Michigan State University, here are some more schools you may be interested in knowing more about.

Curious on how these schools stack up against Michigan State? Pit them head to head with College Combat, our free interactive tool that lets you compare college on the features that matter most to you!

Notes and References

Footnotes

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

References

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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