Michigan State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. MSU was founded in 1855 and served as a model for land-grant colleges and universities later created under the Morrill Act of 1862.[8] The university was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, one of the country’s first institutions of higher education to teach scientific agriculture.[9] After the introduction of the Morrill Act, the college became coeducational and expanded its curriculum beyond agriculture. Today, MSU is one of the largest universities in the United States (in terms of enrollment) and has approximately 634,300 living alumni worldwide.[5]
Michigan State is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among “R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity”.[10][11] The university’s campus houses the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, the Abrams Planetarium, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, and the country’s largest residence hall system.[12] U.S. News & World Report ranked the following MSU graduate programs number one in the country for 2019: elementary teacher education, secondary teacher education, industrial and organizational psychology, rehabilitation counseling, African history, supply chain management/logistics, and nuclear physics. MSU pioneered the studies of music theory,[13] packaging, hospitality business, supply chain management, and communication sciences.
The Michigan State Spartans compete in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference. Michigan State Spartans football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1954, 1956, 1988 and 2014, and the university claims a total of six national football championships. Spartans men’s basketball won the NCAA National Championship in 1979 and 2000 and has attained the Final Four eight times since the 1998–1999 season. Spartans ice hockey won NCAA national titles in 1966, 1986 and 2007. The women’s cross country team was named Big Ten champions in 2019.[14] In the fall of 2019, MSU student-athletes posted all-time highs for graduation success rates and federal graduation rates, according to NCAA statistics.[15]