English teacher Eric Sutton, while attending Michigan State University, walked up to his house to find all of his furniture on fire. One of his roommates, after Michigan State’s basketball team lost in the NCAA Men’s Division I March Madness Tournament, got so angry he burned their furniture.

Michigan State regularly ranks as one of the top 65 college basketball teams in the country and thus participates in March Madness. On campus, students passionately support the team’s performance.

Fast Facts:

• 5,200 acre campus
• 36,337 students
• 89 percent of students are from Michigan
• Average age of freshmen is 18
• 90 percent of students are Caucasian
• Student to faculty ratio of 13 to 1
• 17,000 students fit in college housing
• Tuition: $19,700, Room and Board: $5,750

Applying:

Michigan State has both deferred and rolling admissions. The university requires either SAT or ACT scores, a personal statement, and a $35 non-refundable application fee. The admissions office suggests that you send your application in by November 1 if you wanted to be considered for a majority of the scholarships. All others should submit their application by January 1.

To be fully prepared for the application process, Michigan State would like applicants to have four years of English, three years of math (four years are preferred), three years of social studies, two years of science, and two years of a single foreign language. Advanced Placement and Honors classes are encouraged.

What it Offers:

Michigan has many clubs, sports, and activities. It offers 13 intercollegiate sports, fraternities, sororities, art clubs, band, choir, dance club, debate club, honors club, photography club, religious club, student government, and yearbook.

“In college, I played ultimate frisbee, did yoga, and played music,” said Sutton.

Michigan also offers study abroad programs in more than 65 countries while approximately 2,000 students participate in the program.

“I did a semester in Denmark. That was cool. For about two weeks, I took an introduction to Danish class. Everybody there speaks English, so I wasn’t forced to speak Danish,” said Sutton.

Michigan’s majors include accounting, advertising, cultural studies, agriculture, anthropology, art and art history, biochemisty, biology, communication, creative writing, criminal justice, dance, dietetics, earth science, education, English, forensic science, genetics, history, international relations, journalism, law, linguistics, marketing,  nursing, physics, political science, social science, social work, and women’s studies. For a complete list of majors go to http://www.msu.edu/common/academic/areas.html.

“I majored in English. You majored in the subject you were going to teach, then applied to the teach[ing] program,” said Sutton.

The dorms and food at Michigan State, according to Sutton, aren’t that bad. “It’s a big dorm complex and the school prides itself on having the largest non-military cafeteria. It was good because you had a lot of options. On the other hand, it was mass produced stuff, but they also had personal stuff,” said Sutton.

There are two types of dorms at Michigan State University. You can have a suite with a bathroom that is shared with four other people or a normal dorm with a bathroom shared by everyone on that floor. “I liked the normal dorms better. They were bigger and the bathrooms were cleaned every day,” said Sutton.

Contacts:

Website: msu.edu

Email: [email protected]

Address: Michigan State University

250 Hannah Administration Building

East Lansing, Michigan 48824-0590

Telephone: (517) 355-8332

Gabby Joseph can be reached for comment at [email protected].