Michigan State University ACT Scores: the 25 to 31 Composite Range, Explained

Michigan State University reports an ACT composite range of 25 to 31, with a published midpoint of 26 and an overall admission rate of 85%. Read that literally: 25% of enrolled students who submitted an ACT scored at or below 25, and 75% scored at or below 31. The band is 6 points wide, and the reported midpoint of 26 sits much closer to the bottom of it than to the top, which changes how you should read a score in the mid 20s. None of these numbers is a cutoff.

What Michigan State's 25, 26, and 31 actually describe

The figures below come from the US Department of Education College Scorecard, which draws on IPEDS reporting, and they cover the most recent reported cohort. They describe students who enrolled at Michigan State and submitted an ACT score. They are not applicant averages, and they are not requirements.

Two habits will keep you honest with numbers like these. First, a percentile describes a group, it is never a line you have to clear. Second, the group is enrolled students only. Applicants who were admitted and chose another school are not in it, and neither are students who applied without submitting a score. Our guide to ACT scores walks through the percentile vocabulary in more detail if any of that felt slippery.

Why the 26 midpoint sits closer to 25 than to 31

Plenty of published ACT bands look balanced, with the midpoint near the center of the span. Michigan State's reported figures do not work that way. The published midpoint of 26 is 1 point above the 25th percentile and 5 points below the 75th.

That gap is worth pausing on because of what it rules out. If you saw only "25 to 31," you might split the difference and call 28 the typical score here. The reported data does not support that. The number Michigan State reports as its midpoint is 26, and 28 sits well up in the top half of the band.

Be careful in the other direction too. The reported midpoint is the midpoint of a reported range, not a verified median, so it is not evidence that half the class scored 26 or below. What it does tell you is that the published summary of this class leans toward the lower part of the 25 to 31 span, and that a score in the mid 20s is an ordinary score inside that summary rather than a weak one.

Practically: at 26 you match the reported midpoint. At 28 you are in the upper half of a band whose reported ceiling is 31. Both are useful facts about where you stand relative to enrolled students. Neither is a verdict on an application.

An 85% admission rate across 40,922 undergraduates

Michigan State reports an overall admission rate of 85% and an undergraduate enrollment of 40,922. Both numbers should change how you read the score band.

Start with the 85%. It is an institution-wide ratio of admitted applicants to all applicants for the reported year. It is not your chance of getting in, it does not rise or fall depending on where you sit inside the 25 to 31 range, and no individual person has an 85% probability of admission. Applications are read one at a time.

Now the scale. With more than 40,000 undergraduates, the reported band is a summary of a very large group, and it only describes the middle half of it. A quarter of enrolled score submitters were at or below 25. Another quarter were above 31. At this size, each of those quarters is a large group of real students, which is a good reminder that the published range describes the middle rather than fencing off the class.

Put the two figures together and the sensible reading is this. At a school that admits most of the people who apply, a composite is one input among several, and the 25 to 31 band tells you what the middle of the enrolled class looked like, not what you are obliged to produce. For how these institution-level numbers work across schools, see college ACT scores.

Reading your practice composite against 25, 26, and 31

Take your most recent full-length timed practice composite and find it below. The right column is about what to work on, never about outcomes.

No row here is a cutoff, a requirement, or a probability. The band was built from students who had already enrolled, so it can place you relative to them and nothing more. Use the free ACT score calculator to turn raw practice results into a composite so you are comparing like with like.

What a 3-point move costs on the Enhanced ACT

The Enhanced ACT format changes the arithmetic of closing a gap, so it is worth knowing before you build a plan. Your composite is the average of three sections only:

• English: 50 questions in 35 minutes
• Math: 45 questions in 50 minutes
• Reading: 36 questions in 40 minutes

Science is optional and reported separately, so it does not enter the composite. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, which means leaving a question blank is strictly worse than guessing on it.

Three sections is a small denominator, and that cuts both ways. Moving from 25 to 28, which is a move from the floor of Michigan State's reported band into its upper half, means lifting your three-section average by 3 points. You can get there with 9 scaled points spread evenly across English, Math, and Reading, or with one section that has been dragging the average down. That second case is common, and it is the cheapest repair available to most students.

One caution that applies to any page like this. The data behind the 25, 26, and 31 is composite only. There is no English, Math, or Reading breakdown for Michigan State in it, so treat any section-level target, including one you set for yourself, as a personal study plan and not a school figure. The Enhanced ACT 2025 guide has the full timing and structure.

Working the gap with free Prep36 tools

Everything listed here is free.

• 1,026 original practice questions, each with an instant explanation the moment you answer. These are Prep36 questions written for the Enhanced ACT format, not official ACT questions.
• Six full-length timed forms, two of them free. A timed form is the only honest way to find out whether your 26 is still a 26 under a clock.
• Study plan builder, which turns a target composite and a test date into a weekly schedule.
• Score forecast, which projects where your current pace of work is heading.
• The Enhanced ACT Cram Kit if your test date is close.

A sane order of operations for a band as wide as 25 to 31: take one full timed form, score it with the score calculator, identify your weakest of the three scored sections, then spend two weeks almost entirely inside that section before you sit another form. Guides that pair with this page: how to study for the ACT, how to improve your ACT score, and how to use practice tests. You can start question sets right from the app.

Prep36 is not affiliated with ACT, Inc.

What this page cannot tell you about Michigan State

This page is built from a short list of data points: the 25th percentile of 25, the reported midpoint of 26, the 75th percentile of 31, an 85% overall admission rate, an undergraduate enrollment of 40,922, and a location in East Lansing, Michigan. Every claim above is derived from those. Nothing else is.

So there are real questions this page will not answer, and you should be skeptical of any page that answers them without naming a source. How Michigan State uses ACT scores in its review, whether it accepts a superscore, when its deadlines fall, what scores connect to scholarship money, and how any of that varies by program are policy matters that live on the university's own admissions site. Check there, and check it for the cycle you are actually applying in, because policy can change from year to year while a reported score band stays fixed until the next reporting cycle.

Two general guides that help you ask sharper questions once you are on the official site: how superscoring works, and ACT test dates so you can count backwards from a deadline you have confirmed yourself.

What these composites cost in raw questions

A composite is not a number you score directly. On the Enhanced ACT it is the average of English, Math and Reading, so reaching one means hitting that scaled score across three sections. Science is optional and reported separately, so it is left out here.

Below is what each scaled score actually costs in correct answers, and how many questions you can afford to miss to still land on it.

Read this correctly. These are not section targets for this school. The College Scorecard reports composite percentiles only, with no section-level data, so nobody can tell you what English or Math score this school expects. What the table shows is the raw cost of a 25 and a 31 in each section, whoever you are aiming at. Build your own section goals from your own practice results.

Turn your practice raw scores into a composite with the free ACT score calculator, then drill the sections costing you the most in the free question bank.

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