Here are the best colleges and universities in Michigan. Our list will help you find the right kind of school for you.
With over 80 public and private colleges to choose from, students hoping to earn their associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree can find a program that suits their educational needs and budget. Michigan State University and the University of Michigan are the two largest schools, both serving around 42,000 students and costing $16,000 in tuition. Most of the schools in The Wolverine State, however, serve smaller student populations, with tuition fees ranging from $3,000 to $49,000.
Find college admissions consultants in your state.
Additionally, students pursuing their degree at a school with religious affiliations have more than 20 options to choose from, including Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Grand Rapid’s Calvin College, and Hope College in Holland. Students attending one of Michigan’s private schools, like Davenport University, can earn their degrees in fields like nursing, education, criminal justice, and history. Michigan, like many other states, also provides a special loan forgiveness program to those in medical, dental, and mental health professions who work in underserved communities. Recipients can receive up to $200,000 of tax-free funds over an eight-year period.
The great state of Michigan famously serves as the major hub of the United States auto industry — and also boasts the longest freshwater coastline in the nation. Students who love the outdoors but are also drawn to the metropolitan energy of big cities like Detroit and Grand Rapids will feel very much at home in Michigan.
To find your degree program, explore some of the top schools in Michigan.
Related: Differences between research universities and teaching colleges
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why, at the undergraduate level, we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Concentrated Influence”. Concentrated Influence takes the combined influence score of a college or university’s top academic influencers (including faculty and alums) and divides it by the school’s total number of undergraduates.
Using concentrated influence gives small and mid-sized schools an opportunity to shine by taking away the size advantage of larger universities. A small school with proportionately more influential faculty than a large school, whose influence in absolute terms may be bigger, will nonetheless score higher in a concentrated influence ranking. Our approach highlights undergraduate schools that truly rank for excellence, regardless of size.
If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities for a bachelor’s degree, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching and whether their graduates are themselves advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is free from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
Find out more about our ranking methodology here.
Every fall, more than 2 million high-school graduates will enroll in colleges and universities across the United States. Finding the best college for your educational, personal, and professional goals may be challenging. The purpose of this ranking is to help you manage this challenge with an accurate, objective, and up-to-date ranking of the best colleges and universities in Michigan for earning a bachelor’s degree.
We’ve identified a total of 43 colleges and universities in Michigan, 27 of which meet our criteria. The list below of the top 20 schools focuses on those that offer four-year undergraduate degrees, includes both public and private colleges and universities, and also meet the following two conditions:
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
93%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
View profile
University of Michigan’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$52K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
79%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/28
View profile
Kalamazoo College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
67%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1275/27
View profile
Kettering University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$30K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
73%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
View profile
University of Detroit Mercy’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
81%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/26
View profile
Michigan State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
60%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/24
View profile
Lawrence Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
72%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/27
View profile
Michigan Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$31K
Acceptance
49%
Graduation
61%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/25
View profile
Andrews University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
55%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/25
View profile
University of Michigan–Dearborn’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$37K
Acceptance
78%
Graduation
76%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1230/26
View profile
Hope College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$51K
Acceptance
74%
Graduation
68%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/24
View profile
Albion College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
73%
Graduation
75%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1250/27
View profile
Calvin University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
57%
Student body
18K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/22
View profile
Western Michigan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$35K
Acceptance
71%
Graduation
65%
Student body
1K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/23
View profile
Aquinas College ’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
64%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/23
View profile
Central Michigan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$24K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
58%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/21
View profile
Madonna University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$43K
Acceptance
67%
Graduation
71%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1130/22
View profile
Alma College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$39K
Acceptance
61%
Graduation
54%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/21
View profile
Adrian College’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
88%
Graduation
69%
Student body
22K
Median SAT/ACT
1150/24
View profile
Grand Valley State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$26K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
65%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/22
View profile
Cornerstone University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
What are Custom College Rankings?
College Strategist
Stay informed! Get the latest Academic Influence news, information, and rankings with our upcoming newsletter.