<p>My S got the fast, no-fee application invitation, and it seems interesting enough to respond. UNM is a good school with a modest out-of-state surcharge and merit aid possibilities that would expose him to life outside the South and give him a chance to audition for a top marching band (which is very important to him). But here are the things that seem a bit off-putting to me; please give me your take on them:</p>
<p>The size of the Twin Cities campus - in general, I don't think that anonymity is a good thing. Would the Honors Program help significantly in this regard? The Honors dorm seems sterile, separated from other dorms, and huge.</p>
<p>The urban setting. Does UMN actually feel like a college campus or like taking coursework in office buildings?</p>
<p>The cohesion of the campus community - I have a sense that Michigan and Wisconsin grads who meet for the first time ten years after graduation would have a lot of shared experiences to talk about. Would that be true at UMN or is the experience more encapsulated?</p>
<p>OK, I know you can't fix the winter weather, but it occurs to me that it would occupy half the academic year. Does it tend to discourage campus involvement and engagement during the coldest, snowiest part?</p>
<p>I wrote you a long reply but it never got posted. I am the mother of a OOS UMN junior and I thought I would tell you what D’s expereince has been at the U. First of all, if your son is a good student it is possible that half or all of the OOS tariff will be waived. This makes UMN an incredible bargain and is why UW (which is two as opposed to six hours away) fell off the radar as they are extremely stingy with FA for OOSers.
The school and the campus are big, there is no getting around it. It does feel like a college campus, however, and some of the older buildings are incredibly beautiful. It also has the advantage of being close to downtown Mpls which has a thriving music scene. D went to a concert at First Avenue (Prince’s old place) within weeks of arriving and has been to many concerts since. She also gets free tickets to the Guthrie which is fairly close to the school.
The honors dorm is really nice and it also houses kids interested in the arts so there is some mixture in the students. It is big but not overwhelming. D thought there were a lot of social misfits on the honors floor(of course, she did not include herself in that category!), but all her best friends she met in the dorm. She questioned whether she would pick honors again instead of the superblock (which is much closer to the band practice facility in the stadium for your son) but ultimately decided she would.
If your son joins the band he will have a community instantly, I think that spat camp before school in the fall really bonds them. D has a friend in the band and he loves it.
I don’t think UW or Michigan grads have any different experiences than UMN grads (except for decent football teams!) and the people your son would talk to 10 years after graduating would probably be the same kids he hung around with during college. I graduated from a college with a class size of 200 and none of us had exactly the same college experience.
College is a settling in process and now that D is a junior she is really hitting her stride. She will be studying abroad in the spring as will most of her pals; the U has a really strong study abroad program. If your son is in Carlson school of business, it is required.
She absolutely loves it there and because it is such a big school the class offerings are endless. The languages taken by D and friends include Italian, Arabic, Spanish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Polish to name a few.
As for the weather, Minnesotans say “There is no bad weather, just bad clothing”. If your son goes, you can stop at the Mall of America (no tax on clothes!) when you bring him up and get him fitted out. If your son is in the band he will be playing at basketball and hockey games and the winter will fly by. Minnesotans are very hearty folk and they don’t stay inside just because there is a little snow and cold. Last winter when I was there I saw kids paraskiing, skiing across the ice while holding a small parachute! PM me if you have any more questions.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great response, Denquist! I think that the description of paraskiing would sell my S on Minnesota. He just applied to the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State, so if he applies to UMN he may have the distinction of applying to both the hottest and the coldest state Us in the Lower 48! :)</p>
<p>I love the U of M period! My first two weeks there have been great even as I am still a high school student. The cold weather is awesome too, don’t call me crazy haha. I just love the idea of wearing my coat and walking around campus. By the way, we have a tunnel system, where you do not need to be outside during the Winter. Except, the tunnel is pretty confusing.</p>
<p>Here is what I will say about winter. If your son enjoys being outside in your hometown, then he will continue this behavior in Minnesota. There will be a handful of really cold days where any sane person remains indoors, but for the rest of winter he will find himself participating in multiple outdoor activities. </p>
<p>S has a friend in marching band who told him that it is an AMAZING experience.</p>
<p>I just stumbled upon this summary given to the Board of Regents in Dec of 2010. It will be interesting to see what the numbers are for this year.</p>
<p>Tell him to apply, then see what UMN initially offers him (scholarships etc.) If this looks good, have him visit during the school year to see if he feels it is a good fit for him. Its definitely better to apply (especially if it is free to you) than regret not doing so. My S had a good freshman year in the honors house. He is a smart boy, but couldn’t get over how smart the other kids were. He’s in the College of Engineering and with a 33.5 ACT composite score for the 2010 class, now I understand why everyone he met was so smart.</p>
<p>I think that the economy has something to do with the increase of high stats kids at the U. Many of D’s friends are planning on medical school or other graduate programs and they or their families could not afford undergraduate and grad school debt so they decided to attend the affordable U and get a great education for a relatively small price. I have also been impressed by the classmates that I have met.</p>
There is no need to be anonymous here, unless it is by choice. I don’t get complaints about campus size, it’s not like you ever see all 30,000 undergrads (not even at games). People get to know people from their floors, Welcome Week groups, classes, activities, etc. If you want to talk to a TA or prof, email them or go to office hours.</p>
<p>This is opinion and you’ll find others here who strongly disagree, but I do not like the UHP. I think it’s pretentious and artificial. There’s no need for it here.
East Bank and St Paul both feel very much like a college campus. West Bank is more urban, but this isn’t NYU. Downtown Minneapolis is a pleasant 1-2 mile run away from campus, we aren’t actually in skyscrapers here.</p>
We don’t have the same kind of campus community you’ll find at some other schools. Part of that is the location, another part is the consistently awful teams.</p>
<p>With that said, there are tons of traditions here. People generally don’t care about them as much, but if memorizing the alma mater is your son’s main goal in life there are plenty of people around who get into it.
Haven’t been a student here during winter, but seeing as almost everyone is from the upper midwest people here are used to living with snow.</p>
<p>Hope all that helps. What college is your son looking at?</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great feedback, everyone. Freecell, he’ll be about halfway through a math major by the time he graduates from HS so I think he’ll complete that, but he may want to pursue a second major TBD as well.</p>
<p>The math department is very good, it’s been ranked in the top five in the USA by two separate rankings in the past few months. This is as good a place as any to study math.</p>