Michigan State University

Date: Oct 10 2013
Major: Unknown (This Major's Salary over time)
Ignore the survey above… I did.

I'm a '78 MSU alum and this an objective summary of Michigan State University… one shared by a growing number of individuals, talented observers with the ability to fairly analyze, understand and report what they observe.

Yes, the MSU campus is one of the most beautiful in the United States, but don't let that sway you into enrolling. The big beautiful trees were planted over 150 years ago when there existed only 5 or 6 buildings and a handful of Agriculture students. Much has changed at MSU since then… and sadly, not for the better.

Since the 1950's when the world was truly a gentler, kinder place… MSU has come to be about $\(SRF:ELEMENTS:25xsrf\) signs in an account ledger, remain so loyal to MSU. Many grads, during their careers, work with top notch people from other universities that actually care about their students and produce respected, capable leaders… something MSU persistently fails to do.

BOTTOM LINE: The clubby, incestual and nepotistic MSU administration and it's thousands of employees, really don't give a lab rat's ass about anything or anyone other than themselves. That is something one can sense and feel at MSU.

If you happen to prefer mindless bureaucracies, miles of red tape, problems around every corner, institutional inflexibility, conflict and far more insensitivity and drone (employee/staff) generated hostility than anyone between the ages of 18 and 22 should be subjected to… you will probably enjoy MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. Otherwise, be kind to yourself and attend college elsewhere.

U of M people have long said "MSU suffers from an inferiority complex" and several decades after graduating 'Spartan', I must reluctantly agree with that old but accurate observation/conclusion that I once deemed to be slander rather than substantive. The Spartan sport teams have never been consistent winners even when Nick Saban was the football coach. When coaches leave MSU and move elsewhere (Nick Saban left for The University Alabama)and immediately create national champion football teams year after year after year, one has to ask oneself… "Why do obviously first rate coaches like Saban leave MSU?" and "Why couldn't they do that same thing in East Lansing?". Aside from intentional inside interference from a former football coach and administration insider, George Perles, I'm convinced that MSU's legacy of athletic mediocrity has much to do with a deeply embedded and self-defeating attitude, a permanent sense of inadequacy that explains the 'absence of energy and spirit'. Institutions, like individuals, can assume both positive and negative personality traits. MSU's core personality is unarguably dysfunctional.

There are numerous institutions of higher education, big and small, that are better than MSU… colleges where one can spend four years of one's life and $40, $50, $60,000 or more that will take decades to pay off in the form of student loans.

At MSU… you get lost in the crowd of 46,000+ students and generally speaking, nobody there cares enough to go look for you.