Michigan State University | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Kyle

Class: Sophomore
Major: Marketing
Gender: M

High School: Wylie E. Groves
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

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.

Academic Life

Professors will know your name if it's a class of about 30 or less. If you want to get to know the professor (AND have a better chance of doing well in the class), you MUST go up to them and at least introduce yourself. Teachers are there to help us learn, so you should ask them for help if you need it, and don't wait until the day of the final to ask for it. My favorite class was Theatre 101 because I LOVE acting, and I'm a theatre minor. I also liked my ISS 210 class with Zimmerman; she was very fun. I HATED ISS 325; it was interesting, but SO hard. Studying varies from student to student; I have friends who have NO social life because all they do is study. Me on the other hand? I hardly EVER study and I have a 3.4 overall so far. Class participation is welcomed, but it depends on the teacher whether or not you get graded hard for it or not. SOME students are competitive with each other. I would say in general that we like to help each other though...not like some OTHER schools where they tell their classmates "Oh you were sick, screw you. You should've gone to class" (U of M...hint hint, ha ha). MSU's academic requirements are not that bad. I'm an advertising major, so I don't have a hefty load of requirements, but I've heard that James Madison and Lyman Briggs (honors colleges) are obviously heavier workloads. I think MSU's education is geared to help you get a job after graduation. There are ALWAYS professors in your major that HAVE worked in the real world regarding the topic you're studying. For instance, my ADV 205 teacher worked for ad firms for much of her younger life. She just decided she wanted to teach it instead. There are always internship, scholarship, and apprenticeship opportunities through MSU after you graduate.

Student Body

MSU's campus has a plethora of students from different backgrounds, races, creeds, religions...everything. You get a good mix at State. I don't think ANY student would feel "out of place" at Michigan State. Everyone is really nice and pretty accepting of everyone. I've see almost ANY kind of student you can think of a MSU. Most students wear jeans, t-shirts, skirts, sandals, hats, tank tops to class (you know...REGULAR clothes). Some like to dress up for class...and you CAN if you want; just depends on the person. All different types of students interact. College is a time to make friends with new and interesting people; branch out...meet someone different from your usual mold of friends. Most MSU students are probably from Michigan, but I've met students from California, Florida, Chicago, New York, Connecticut...even the Middle East. Students at State come from all over the world. Students are definitely politically aware and some more active than others. There are online polls of "who will you vote for" and "what do you think about this issue in America today." It just depends on the person; some are more aware/active than others. I would say that more people at State are politically left, but there is a good mix of left, right, center, and those who just don't care. For most kids, their future income is probably not that important right now; I would think they're just interested in graduating first.