Resources

The Federal Student Aid website provides an introduction to financial aid and the types of aid that are available to students in the U.S.  

You can find the basic eligibility requirements for U.S. citizens on the Federal Student Aid website, along with information for eligible noncitizens. 

At the College of Education, online master’s students must take at least five credits a semester to be eligible for federal financial aid (most master’s-level courses are three credits). Graduate certificate-only students are not eligible for federal financial aid. 

You must enroll for a minimum of five credits. Find more information on enrollment and financial aid on the Office of Financial Aid website.

No. Tuition for online MAED candidates is the same for all students regardless of residency. Please see the current tuition rate on the Student Accounts page on Controller’s Office website. The MAED is listed as “Online Education Masters.”

VA benefits apply to the MAED like all other graduate degree programs. Questions regarding VA benefits may be directed to the Joann Villarreal in Registrar’s office at villarr4@msu.edu.

Students and guests can make payments on balances via the Student Information System (SIS) at student.msu.edu. After logging in, students and guests should navigate to the Student Accounts tile to access their student account. Once inside the payment portal, students and guests can make payments on current and prior semester balances, view account details and bills, enroll in a payment plan or sign up for direct deposit refunds.

For more information about billing and payments, visit the Student Accounts information on the MSU Office of the Controller website.

Please note: students must first grant guests access to the Student Accounts tile before guests can access the payment portal. Learn more on guest access.

1. Once you have accepted your Offer of Admission in the MSU admissions portal, you can find your MSU Student ID at the top of the Application Status page within the portal.
2. You will receive an email notification to log into their Admissions portal to retrieve your PAN. Students will need to click on “Show Personal Access Number (PAN)” button to display the 4-digit PAN.
3. Within the portal, you will need to click on the link “Activate your MSU NetID and email,” which will take you to the Admissions website to activate your NetID.
4. Use your MSU email address to access the online course web systems Desire2Learn. You will also use your email address to access Campus Solutions, where you can see your course schedules and grades, view and pay bills, and track your financial aid. 

New students may wish to take one course during their first semester in their primary concentration area. This would allow them to judge how much time online courses take and confirm that they made the right choice regarding the concentration area. Nevertheless, students may take two courses if they choose. It is necessary for MAED students to enroll in two courses to be eligible for financial aid.

If you are concerned about how many courses you should take, a good rule of thumb is to expect to spend an average of six to nine hours per week for each 3-credit course you’re taking.

1. Select the course(s) you want to take from the Courses page of the MAED website. Check this page frequently for new course postings. ED 800 Concepts of Educational Inquiry is one of the two required courses for the MAED and usually is taken in the first or second semester of enrollment. However, students may take ED 800 during their first semester. ED 870 Capstone Seminar, the second MAED required course, should be taken as the last or second to the last course in the program. You may not take this course prior to 80% program completion. It is necessary to receive an override to enroll in these courses. To request an override, when enrollment opens up for the semester in which you would like to take these courses, send an email to ollejohn@msu.edu, including your PID, course title, and the semester in which you wish to enroll. For future reference, please note that courses used to fulfill concentration areas are cited on the Concentrations page of the MAED website.
2. Enroll for courses via Campus Solutions at https://student.msu.edu. Guides for using Campus Solutions can be found at sis.msu.edu/help/enrollment.html and https://sis.msu.edu/learn-more.html.  Campus Solutions requires multi-factor authentication (MFA). For more information about this and to register your credentials, go to https://secureit.msu.edu/multi-factor/index.html. Future course schedules can be viewed in Campus Solutions under the “Classes” tile.
3. Pay your tuition. The MSU Business Office will send a notice to your MSU email address when your tuition invoice is available.

It is very important that you access your class(es) on the first day of class. Please know that you will not be able to access your class(es) prior to the first day of class. The run dates for each course are listed on MSU’s Course Search website. Please do not wait for an email from your course instructor. If you have any questions about a course or required materials for a course, be sure to contact the instructor. Faculty contact information can be found on MSU’s Course Search website, MSU’s People Search, and the Faculty/Staff page of the MAED website. Books may be purchased through online booksellers, like Amazon.com.

It is your responsibility to “attend” class on the first day of class via Desire2Learn.  Below are the steps to access your class(es):

1. Find your class on Desire2Learn.
2. Enter your MSUNetID (the portion of your email address prior to the @ sign) and the password.

The Desire2Learn FAQ page and Help and Support pages may help to address any initial questions that you may have. 

You won’t need every discussion forum you’ve ever participated in, but as part of the ED 870 Capstone Seminar you will be developing a showcase that revolves around projects you identify as seminal or important in your master’s journey. At the conclusion of each class we recommend picking two or three assignments, archiving and recording a description of them.

It is important that you store your work in multiple secure places! Do not rely on d2l to save you work – after your class is over, you may lose access to your d2l course. Save work on your hard-drive, in the cloud, and make backups!

Contact John Olle, the online MAED academic advisor, regarding course selection, fulfillment of degree requirements, and graduation. Be sure to check the FAQ page for a list of common questions and answers.

Online students are a vital part of the College of Education, and our faculty and staff take the responsibility of assisting your intellectual and professional aspirations seriously. Find a series of resources to support you on your academic journey at MSU via Academic & Student Affairs.