Pros:
o Good faculty (though I dunno that I've ever heard a student at any vet school say their faculty weren't good);
o Slow, steady investment in facilities/equipment. Several years prior to my arrival they created the equine center, which is really outstanding. While I was there they revamped our 1940s era student carrel room and turned it into a tech'd out group learning environment. They also renovated one of the lecture rooms. The next year they revamped student surgery and put in all new tables, new (and nice) lights, an overhead camera at one table that could display to two drop-down monitors for teaching, etc.* After I left they broke ground on a new General Practice area in the hospital - the idea is/was to create a distinctive SA GP area that was self-contained to better model what SA practitioner graduates would see after they graduate. Had its own exam rooms, treatment area, etc. I haven't seen it, but the floor plans looked neat.
o Large teaching hospital. The case load is among the highest, which is nice come fourth year. (Downside: They don't see exotics!). The size gives you access to a broader set of experts than some students at some other schools will have. I can't remember who, but someone was talking about radiology .... their school has 0 board-certified radiologists. UMN has 4. Plus 3 residents. Other than the missing exotics, UMN is very well staffed.**
o Good community presence. Two clubs provide service to the community - one puts on an urban monthly clinic (mostly vaccines, but they do some skin scraping and that sort of thing), and another does multiple reservation trips in MN every year for wellness/sterilization. If you become super involved in those like I did you can gain a LOT of experience - much more than the school will ever be able to provide through the curriculum. As a bonus, you can really get to know some of the awesome faculty that are involved. There are other great clubs like any school, but these two stand out for what they offer the community as well as students. The urban clinic is similar in some ways to UC Davis's Mercer Clinic (but Mercer is, I think, a much more developed program.).
o Good public transportation. The metro bus/train service is well built-out in the Twin Cities. So long as you live somewhere with decent access to it you can easily bus to school for pretty cheap. I drove for a few years, but for my third year I mostly bused .... other than the time involved (I lived in a suburb so I had to switch buses midway) it was awesome.
Cons:
o Cost
o Cost
o Cost
o Minimal exotics exposure available fourth year without doing externships. (But that is probably true at many schools.) The UMN teaching hospital does not see exotics, including pocket pets, birds, or reptiles. (They do have the raptor center if you like birds, but they don't see pet birds.)
o Crappy parking. There is an expensive ramp right next to school, but otherwise it is outdoor lots that are at least a few blocks away, which can suck in Jan/Feb.
o Cost - I *love* UMN CVM. It's a great program with great staff. But they just plain HAVE to get their tuition back down to something reasonable, or hold it steady for many many years until inflation gets it back into a reasonable range. It is, last I checked, the most expensive land-grant school in the U.S. (as far as vet schools).
* Personally, I think the investment in surgery stuff was silly. I got WAY, WAY more experience in surgery doing SIRVS (similar to RAVS, but UMN-specific), RAVS, and a spay/neuter externship at a high-volume place than the single surgery I got as a second-year student...... UMN *ought* to be looking into ways to grow SIRVS or partner with low-income areas of the state: they could provide much more teaching/experience for a fraction of the cost of maintaining those facilities. But I think it's a tough swallow for administration to look at alternative approaches like that.
** The UMN Dentistry service is, last I heard, still shut down. It shut down the year I went into clinics when both dentists left for greener pastures. They apparently still have not hired someone. General Practice is doing some dentistry, but they need to get the Dentistry service back on its feet.
1st time applicant!
good luck! Hopefully we’ll be classmates! 
good luck! Hopefully we’ll be classmates!
did I just say that?
