My daughter and I will be visiting campus soon (arriving Thursday night, leaving Saturday AM). She has an interview, tour, info session and meeting with a professor scheduled for Friday. Any suggestions for getting the most out of the visit?
I should add that my daughter is very interested in attending college in a city, for access to museums, theater, etc. Any ideas in this vein are particularly appreciated!
You are smart to come when it is the coldest! We did that, too.
Check out the student union and the fitness center. Get a feel for what students do when they are not in class. Eat in the cafeteria and eavesdrop a little. On our visit to Mac, I noticed that students seemed happy and almost everyone was eating with someone else (not true at every school; sometimes I noticed most students ate alone). Walk around outside campus and make note of the restaurants and shops. There are some nice little ethnic places to eat near campus.
Ask about how students interact with the city. Ask students as well as the admin. The sports teams do a good amount of volunteering, for example. Maybe swing by the career center and see what is offered there? Seems like we did that; went to see where kids could volunteer or get part time or summer jobs in the city.
Thanks for the ideas, @Lizardly - will definitely hit some of those.
If you want to see more of the cities, you could go to Minneapolis on Friday night. There is a Shakespeare play at the Guthrie. Also in that area, you could walk over the stone arch bridge.
If you are coming the last weekend in January or the next weekend, you could go downtown to Rice Park in Saint Paul to see the ice sculptures for the winter carnival. It is really pretty down there during the winter carnival.
Thanks, @CheddarcheeseMN and @Lizardly. Due to the blizzard on the East Coast this past weekend, we got an extra couple of days in the Twin Cities. For the record, here are some of the off-campus things we did:
[ul][] Shopped at Garrison Keillor’s [Common Good Books](http://www.commongoodbooks.com/) next to campus. Very well-curated selection.
[] Ate at a couple of the ethnic restaurants next to campus (Pad Thai, Shish).
[] Visited the [Walker Art Center](http://www.walkerart.org/). My daughter, who loves contemporary art, was stunned by this museum.
[] Went for dinner and ice cream in the Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis.
[li] Visited [Cosetta’s Italian marketplace](http://cossettas.com/) in St. Paul for lunch. Then toured the Cathedral and drove the length of Summit Ave. to the Mississippi. Block after block of gorgeous homes; passes the northern edge of campus.[/ul][/li]All in all, a very nice initial exposure to Mac and the Twin Cities.