The following reviews are the views of students or alumni at this school and are unrelated to the school data and other editorial content on usnews.com. These reviews neither reflect nor impact a school's position within the Best Colleges rankings.
I LOVE the "big campus" atmosphere. State is agreat place to meet new people and start fresh. The campus is beautiful by the way. I also love "web enroll," which gives you the opportunity to choose your schedule from the comfort of your home or dorm room. When I tell people to go to MSU, they tend to get excited because of our reputation for partying. East Lansing is definitely a college town. Unlike U of M, MSU MAKES East Lansing. At U of M, Ann Arbor MAKES the campus. I would probably change the dorms to be a bit bigger, but it's your freshman year and you don't need that much space to make it work. The dorm food should be better. The food at the International Center is GREAT! Classes have been pretty good. It ALL depends on the professor you have though; yes, a topic can be boring, but if you have a good fun professor, you'll do well. The biggest recent controversy was probably Cedar Fest, and the fact that students were tear-gassed. It's like that every time there's a Cedar Fest though. There is a LOT of school pride for State; I love being a Spartan. I'll always remember Greek Week because my team won in 2008!! Rushing a fraternity was a great experience. It's not for everyone, but it's very fun I think; it definitely helped my social life a ton.
Kyle Sophomore
MSU is an excellent teaching university, which is trying to reinvent itself as a half-assed research university. I feel because of this, the actual educational value of what's being taught is begining to suffer for undergrads, but will be improving for grad students in the future. I like the interesting people I meet, and since it's such a big campus, you have the opportunity to meet a lot of them. The campus itself is one of the most beautiful I've seen, so if you like wildlife and natural settings, you'll love it for that. The reputation for students really depends on what department you're in (if you're in a good one, a MSU degree is respectable). East Lansing is a really good hangout as well, and borders campus so it isn't too bad of a trek. The administration as a whole has the same faults of any other, being uncommunicative, bloated, and autocratic, but there are certainly universities where this is far worse. For the most part, MSU is an average state college that excels mostly in the departments where the best degrees are to be had.
Nonny Junior
MSU is my favorite place to be. I will obviously say it is the best place, because I go there. I absolutely love that even though it is a huge campus, one can find their niche and find people to hang out with. It is a huge diverse place and you come across many different people. Even though East Lansing is your typical college town, East Lansing is basically state, it still has a nice community of adults who raise their children in this town.
Michelle Sophomore
Sarah Alum
I'm going to go ahead and just address the questions here one at a time: The best thing about MSU is that it offers degree programs in every subject you can think of. I came to school without any idea of what I wanted to do, and at Michigan State you dont have to be afraid of them not having a program for a subject that you think might be interested in. If I could change one thing about MSU I would change its reputation (I am trying, and not just through this forum) because the experience I have at MSU has helped land me in presitgious internships around the country and given me every opportunity to succeed. Just because MSU accepts students with sub par test scores and GPAs does not mean that there are not incredibly smart people there, along with world class faculty. MSU is a huge school, and it seems like you never see the same person twice at first except in the residence halls. However, as you get more advanced in your major, you begin to make connections with people who are always in the same group of classes as you. Personally, I hate crowded places, like big cities, but MSU has a sort of sprawling beautiful landscape that makes it feel almost rural and less like you are surrounded by 45000 students. East Lansing is a college town. The population approximately doubles when school is in session (with a permanant population around 40,000, which is close to the enrollment at MSU). There is a lot of stuff to do around there because the town is built around the institution. Sometimes you have to look for stuff to do, but usually you will find people playing every sport around campus, and fliers for most any activity you can imagine as long as you are willing to get out of your room and participate! I don't have any close ties to MSU's administration, but in my case I have never had anything to complain about. The most recent controversy at MSU was Cedarfest. Apperently Cedarfest used to be an annual event where people got excessively loud, drunk, and obnoxious. Last year there was a reincarnation of Cedarfest which got national media attention because of students getting tear gassed and tearing down street signs. I wasn't there, but I know a lot of people who were. There were sufficient warnings tat it was going on, and the police handled it well from what I hear, but I found it insulting that our school was being stereotyped because of this "riot", but a lot of people who I talked to thought it was really cool. I guess it is just a matter of perspective. Personally, I wish it hadn't taken place. People wear green and white every day. The student sections at sporting events is loud and faithful. As with anything, there are people who like to be on the other side have little pride or spirit. That being said, the vast majority of spartans are proud to go to MSU and wear their colors. Go Green! Go White! I have attended two other institutions on my way to MSU, and none have been the same. In that respect, I think all schools are unique because they all feel just a little different. As a physics major, the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) makes MSU stand out above most other universities. I think that most students discover what sort of things are unusual and important on their own personal level. One experience I will always remember is a football game. Near the end of last season, we beat Penn State in the waning minutes at Spartan Stadium to give ourselves a chance at a bowl bid last year. It was the first year that I had been attending Spartan football games, and it was a blast. The whole student section was cheering, and it didn't matter if you were a senior or a freshman, a math or communications major, or anything. Everyone was just a Spartan. People like to complain about all kinds of things. It seems like the most common complaint is about having to go to class or do homework, but I don't really know what can be done about that.
Scott Senior
The best thing about MSU is the feeling that you belong even though its such a large campus. There is a ton of people but its awesome because you get to meet a bunch of new people. Most of my time is spent on campus probably in the dorm rooms (not mine of course) and just being outside somewhere. It is definitely a college town. Just about everything revolves around the students/school whether the actual town residents will admit that or not. MSU students have an incredible amount of school pride. I was shocked when I went to my first football game. If you go you definitely have to get student season tickets. It's insane. You don't even have to like football. THe biggest controversy that happened recently is probably when the administration is trying to "get rid of welcome week" although it is basically the worst idea ever. It's okay. We'll just party instead of going to class for the first week. HOLLER ! The #1 complaint I would say is how hard it is to park // the Nazi like parking people and their ticket giving. It's ***ing out of control.
Ryan Sophomore
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