| Michigan State University is, sadly, the most interesting feature of East Lansing, Michigan. The school is a research university with over 40,000 students. MSU is a member of the Big Ten athletic conference. The school is known, among other things, for its excellent basketball team, coached by Tom Izzo, which is a frequent Final Four participant.
Academically, MSU is hit-or-miss. The arts and humanities programs are not terribly good, but the school does have its strengths. In particular, it has good programs in journalism, agriculture, packaging and science, particularly bioscience.
There is little love lost between MSU and the University of Michigan. The general attitude of MSU students is that Michigan students are very stuck up. The general attitude of Michigan students usually confirms this attitude. The schools meet once a year in football, an event that usually promotes much trash-talking both among the students and the schools' papers.
As for entertainment at MSU or in East Lansing, options are at best, limited. The area has a dearth of good restaurants. The best bars are probably the local BW-3's and Crunchy's. There aren't a whole lot of national musical acts who come to campus, and there's no suitable venue off campus, so the best music one can hope for is local or semi-local crap like Wally Pleasant or the Verve Pipe.
A sort of entertaining factoid about MSU is that its Breslin Student Events Center is where Mick Foley, as his WWF character Mankind debuted his Mr. Socko gimmick, everyone's favorite sock puppet/weapon.
If one is considering college at Michigan State University, be prepared to drink heavily, because there's little else to entertain you there, and academics are not going to fill up all of your time.
It should be noted that the school's repuation for riots is perhaps a little overemphasised. One happened during the 1999 Final Four when MSU lost to Duke, and another one earlier over a ban on alcohol at tailgates, but they are hardly common in the school's history. | 
