Yes Duluth is nicer than GF (though unless you pick GF for 3rd and 4th year, you're only there for 2 years). Regarding being closer to the Minn/St. Paul - yeah it's nice, but consider how much free time you'll have and the fact that you'll primarily be living off of loans (I'm not saying there isn't time for fun in in med school, just really try and be realistic when considering those aspects). UND's mission is to push out primary care physicians, particularly ones who will serve rural communities. There are opportunities at UND to spend time with rural and primary care physicians during 1st and 2nd year that are very well received by those who participate in them. During 3rd year you can do ROME which entails spending a little over half of your rotations at rural sites. Those who choose the traditional 3rd year program at UND still have to spend at least 6 weeks rotating in rural communities. Also, there are plenty of rural electives during 4th year if that's really what you're interested in. A plus at UND is getting a lot of one on one time with attendings due to being a community program v. the typical hierarchical structure of attending, chief resident, junior resident, intern, 4th year, 3rd year. This allows for students to see and do a lot more at UND being there are "less hands in the pot", and you get to know your attending pretty well which = better/more personal LORs when applying for residency. A lot of UND grads have cited this as a big plus in preparing them for residency. A downside to UND is that if you're interested in research you'll likely have to work a bit harder to find solid opportunities. Its really not an issue if you're proactive about and don't just expect something to fall into your lap; plenty of students manage to line-up good research positions every year. Regarding specializing, it doesn't matter where you go. Again, despite what you may read on SDN, where you choose to attend will have little, if any, impact on being able to go into a particular specialty.
That said, I really like Duluth and GF does honestly suck (again you'll likely only be there for 2 years); it wouldn't be an easy decision for me. I'd still probably go with UND (I did pick UND over some other schools but U of M wasn't one of them), but mainly because I knew really well how 3rd and 4th year worked at UND going into the process, and I really preferred that over the traditional academic hierarchy at other schools for the reasons mentioned above. There isn't a wrong choice, go with what you feel will be the best fit for you as an individual.
Edit - also, don't forget which school has the better hockey team...😉
