Entity | Michigan State University

Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States, predating the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania. 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. In 1955, the state officially made the college a university, and the current name, Michigan State University, was adopted in 1964. Today, Michigan State is one of the largest universities in the United States (in terms of enrollment) and has approximately 634,300 living alumni worldwide. MSU was affiliated with Oakland University (then known as Michigan State University-Oakland), in Rochester Hills, until Oakland University gained institutional independence in 1970. The university 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 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.