page_title: Michigan State University academics
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Michigan State University academics / Demographics
context_page_description: Michigan State University offers over 200 academic programs at its East Lansing, Michigan campus. MSU is well known for its academic programs in education and agriculture, and the university pioneered the studies of packaging, horticulture and music therapy. MSU has one of the premier hospitality schools in the United States, and the study abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the nation, offering more than 300 programs in more than 60 countries on all continents, including Antarctica.
  As a research university, MSU is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities. Since its inception as a small agricultural college in 1855, MSU has put a strong emphasis on research. Important discoveries made at MSU include hybrid corn, homogenized milk, anti-cancer drug cisplatin, and Germanium isotope Ge-60. Like other large American universities, MSU has many teaching assistants teaching upper-level courses. Michigan State University Ombudsman is the oldest continually operating ombudsman office at a college or university in the country.
context_section_description: Michigan State has the seventh largest student body in the U.S. There are 45,166 total students, with 35,678 undergraduates and 9,488 graduate and professional students. The student body is 54% female and 46% male. While 89% of students come from all 83 counties in the State of Michigan, also represented are all 50 states in the U.S. and about 125 other countries. MSU has about 4,500 faculty and 6,000 staff members, and a student/faculty ratio of 19:1. Like other large American universities, MSU has a large number of teaching assistants teaching upper-level courses. This led The Princeton Review in 2005 to rank MSU eleventh worst in the category of "teaching assistants teach too many upper-level courses".
caption: The Art Deco Psychology Building originally housed the Physics and Astronomy department.
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