The Michigan Indian Tuition Waiver is a program enacted by Public Act 174 of 1976, which waives the tuition costs for eligible Native Americans in public community colleges or universities within Michigan, including Michigan State University. Students granted the waiver by the state will still be required to cover other costs, such as housing and meals, textbooks and incidentals.
To be considered eligible, Native American students must be a Michigan resident and have resided in Michigan for twelve consecutive months at the time of application; must qualify for admission at a public institution in Michigan; and must be one-quarter (1/4) Native American blood quantum and an enrolled citizen of a U.S. Federally Recognized Tribe.
For more details on the waiver, visit the Office of Financial Aid.
The Maynard Kennedy Turtle Island Acknowledgement Scholarship has been established to provide in-state tuition status to a limited number of out-of-state tribally affiliated students and descendants from state or federally recognized tribes, as well as Canadian Status Indian students and descendants who otherwise do not qualify.
Admitted incoming first-year students must apply for this scholarship by March 1 of their high school senior year to receive consideration. To apply, please log into your account and upload the required information.
We accept multiple forms of tribal documentation including:
For descendant-based eligibility, you must provide the above documentation of a parent, along with a birth certificate establishing your relationship.
Log in to your account to fill out the application
We collectively acknowledge that Michigan State University occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary Lands of the Anishinaabeg – Three Fires Confederacy of Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi peoples. In particular, the University resides on Land ceded in the 1819 Treaty of Saginaw. We recognize, support and advocate for the sovereignty of Michigan’s twelve federally-recognized Indian nations, for historic Indigenous communities in Michigan, for Indigenous individuals and communities who live here now, and for those who were forcibly removed from their Homelands. By offering this Land Acknowledgement, we affirm Indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Michigan State University more accountable to the needs of American Indian and Indigenous peoples.