Graduate school may be a critical step in your higher education, whether you are interested in expanding your knowledge, learning a specialization, or earning advanced credentials required by your profession. The best graduate schools in Michigan offer advanced degrees, such as master’s and doctoral degrees, as well as opportunities for independent research, mentorships, and professional networking.
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.
The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great! 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 in their fields of study.
Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and arbitrary performance metrics. Concentrated Influence provides a ranking that is freer from bias, insulated from manipulation, and reflective of real-world educational outcomes.
To rank the influence of schools, we first determine the influence of scholars and professionals based on the number of citations and publications they have had over the past 10 years. In addition to publications and citations, we consider the web links to and from these sources, and the page views of those sources. We then match the influential people to their alma maters and institutions of employment, so that their influence is attributed to those schools. Our machine-learning Influence Ranking algorithm produces a numerical score of academic achievements, merits, and citations across Wikipedia, wikidata, Crossref, Semantic Scholar and an ever-growing body of data. If you are interested in exploring how and why we rank by influence, explore our methodology in more depth.
There are 16 doctorate-granting graduate schools in Michigan. Our ranking of the best graduate schools in the Michigan is composed of both private and public schools. To be included, schools must be fully accredited non-profit institutions, and must offer doctoral degrees and a broad array of graduate degrees.
Tuition + fees
$17K
Acceptance
26%
Graduation
93%
Student body
45K
Median SAT/ACT
1435/32
University of Michigan’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
76%
Graduation
81%
Student body
44K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/26
Michigan State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
52%
Student body
20K
Median SAT/ACT
1120/24
Wayne State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
85%
Graduation
57%
Student body
18K
Median SAT/ACT
1105/22
Western Michigan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$15K
Acceptance
81%
Graduation
56%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1125/23
Oakland University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$30K
Acceptance
79%
Graduation
73%
Student body
4K
Median SAT/ACT
1155/24
University of Detroit Mercy’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$16K
Acceptance
75%
Graduation
47%
Student body
14K
Median SAT/ACT
1080/22
Eastern Michigan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$18K
Acceptance
70%
Graduation
72%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1270/27
Michigan Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
69%
Graduation
64%
Student body
16K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/23
Central Michigan University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$32K
Acceptance
49%
Graduation
61%
Student body
3K
Median SAT/ACT
1210/25
Andrews University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$13K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
50%
Student body
9K
Median SAT/ACT
1050/21
Ferris State University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$25K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
58%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1030/21
Madonna University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$38K
Acceptance
82%
Graduation
60%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1145/24
Lawrence Technological University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$14K
Acceptance
68%
Graduation
55%
Student body
7K
Median SAT/ACT
1185/25
University of Michigan–Dearborn’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$12K
Acceptance
77%
Graduation
38%
Student body
5K
Median SAT/ACT
1095/23
University of Michigan–Flint’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Tuition + fees
$27K
Acceptance
87%
Graduation
65%
Student body
2K
Median SAT/ACT
1070/22
Cornerstone University’s faculty and alumni have been influential in:
Many of our 2022 undergraduate focused rankings look considerably different than 2021. That’s because we took a fundamentally different apporach. For 2021 we utiulized our Concentrated Influence algorithm, designed to take away the size advantage larger schools have when we rank their faculty and alumni’s academic influence. Concentrated influence highlights smaller schools that are proportionally as successful as larger universities at cultivating influential alumni and faculty.
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