University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, thoughts

[bozz]

I only hear good things about this school (with the exception of weather 😀). It's in pretty good ranking, has a big focus on research, has increasing support from state legislature. I'm surprised that not too many people talk about UMN on here.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Jonnymed]

When I interviewed there, I had the impression that the students were very happy. I think the school feels a lot of pressure to increase its rank and prestige, but most schools are also trying to do the same, and it's a long road to the top. I wouldn't be too confident about the increasing support from the legislature though, as funding is always a problem at the U, and tuition (especially for Undergrads) has gone through the roof over the past 6 years. Thank you Pawlenty, we really appreciate that you don't think it's necessary to put money into education, you ****.

Sorry, got off on a funding education tangent. Moral of the story, Minneapolis is a great city, as long as you can handle over 6 months of winter. It starts snowing in October, and has been known to snow in April. (March is technically the snowiest month)

 

[McPoyle]

Don't believe the hype, it really doesn't start snowing until December, and even then in recent years we have gotten far less snow than the Great Lakes areas (Milwaukee, Chicago etc...) Sure you may get flurries in October, or the rare storm in April but the snow is really not bad. However, it does get far far colder than most areas of the country and the wind tunnel that is the UMN campus can literally be painful to walk around in such weather. It is not uncommon to have a week in January that is -20 consistently. All told, it really only terrible during some of December, and all of January. Plus, if you play it right, you can take tunnels all over campus depending where you park or live at... so the cold could be a pretty moot point.

With that said, the school rocks, as you seem to have noticed with your comments about research and such. I was born elsewhere and moved here in 200 after high school. My wife and I would love to stay in the area, and with the collapse of the housing market, this is becoming closer to a reality for us. Overall, its a great education in a very cosmopolitan and livable locale. My only complaint is that I believe it may be one of the most expensive state schools, even for in state students.