About Us

Michigan State University is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. After the introduction of the Morrill Act in 1862, the state designated the college a land-grant institution in 1863, making it the first of the land-grant colleges in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1870. Today, Michigan State has facilities all across the state and over 634,000 alumni.

Michigan State is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The university's campus houses the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, the Abrams Planetarium, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and the country's largest residence hall system.

The university's six professional schools include the College of Law (founded in Detroit, in 1891, as the Detroit College of Law and moved to East Lansing in 1995), Eli Broad College of Business; the College of Nursing, the College of Osteopathic Medicine (the world's first state-funded osteopathic college), the College of Human Medicine, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. The university pioneered the studies of music therapy, packaging, hospitality business, supply chain management, and communication sciences.