I’m pretty set on going to the biological sciences college at the U, but from what I heard, most of the courses are on the St. Paul campus. Is that true or are they equally split between the two?
First of all, for the first couple of years you’re going to be taking classes all over the campus (West Bank, East Bank, St. Paul) just because they schedule the gen ed. and pre-reqs wherever there is available space. Second, while the administrative offices of the college itself appear to be located in St. Paul, a good number of biological science departments and research facilities are on the Minneapolis campus (East Bank). You can always visit and ask that question. It might come down to what your specific major will be, and/or whether they educate the undergrads separately from the grad students.
CBS is one of the few colleges in the United States dedicated to the biological sciences. It’s a pretty selective program at the undergrad. level and has a fairly high ranking at the grad level per US News. We have friends whose kid was accepted to both UMN/CBS and UW-Madison and chose UMN for the facilities. I wouldn’t worry so much about where one particular class or another was located.
BTW, if you are worried about being separated from all the action, you can always dorm in the Superblock. In particular, Biology House (one of the LLC’s) is located in Frontier and is open to first years w/ preference given to CBS. Check it out: https://housing.umn.edu/llcs/biology