by our College Data Analytics Team
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 123 badges in the 2025 rankings. The highest ranked major at the school is medicine.
Explore the best ranked schools for the programs you are most interested in.
According to College Factual's 2025 analysis, Michigan State is ranked #54 out of 2,152 schools in the nation that were analyzed for overall quality. 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 #74 spot on the Best Overall Colleges list.
Out of the 56 colleges in Michigan, Michigan State is ranked at #2.
Because it has a high acceptance rate of 88%, some consider Michigan State to be a safety school. But don't just assume that admittance is in the bag. Make sure to spend enough time on your application so that it is in tip-top shape.
About 39% 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 580 and 670. Math scores were between 580 and 690.
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 17 to 1, which is on par with the national average of 15 to 1. That's not bad at all.
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 86%. This is higher than the national average of 47%.
Michigan State University has a freshmen retention rate of 89%. 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.
The on-time graduation rate for someone pursuing a bachelor's degree is typically four years. This rate at Michigan State for first-time, full-time students is 58%, which is better than the national average of 33.3%.
Find out more about the retention and graduation rates at Michigan State University.
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.
| $0-30 K | $30K-48K | $48-75 | $75-110K | $110K + |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $7,087 | $13,687 | $19,682 | $25,247 | $27,297 |
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.
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 37% of students took out student loans averaging $8,138 a year. That adds up to $32,552 over four years for those students.
The student loan default rate at Michigan State is 1.0%. 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.
See which majors at Michigan State University make the most money.
Get more details about the location of Michigan State University.
Contact details for Michigan State are given below.
| Contact Details | |
|---|---|
| Phone: | 517-355-1855 |
| Website: | https://www.msu.edu/ |
| Most Popular Majors | Bachelor’s Degrees | Average Salary of Graduates |
|---|---|---|
| Business Administration & Management | 749 | $71,253 |
| Public Relations & Advertising | 568 | $45,158 |
| General Biology | 540 | $26,435 |
| General Psychology | 503 | $30,164 |
| Medicine | 467 | NA |
| Finance & Financial Management | 364 | $68,103 |
| Arts & Media Management | 355 | NA |
| Health & Physical Education | 333 | $28,045 |
| Computer Information Systems | 332 | $86,192 |
| Mechanical Engineering | 315 | $80,259 |
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 2022-2023, 26,226 students took at least one online class at Michigan State University. This is a decrease from the 37,514 students who took online classes the previous year.
| Year | Took at Least One Online Class | Took All Classes Online |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-2023 | 26,226 | 2,728 |
| 2021-2022 | 37,514 | 3,988 |
| 2020-2021 | 45,588 | 40,974 |
| 2018-2019 | 11,469 | 2,196 |
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!
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.