10college10

I visited the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. during my sophomre year. I absolutely loved it. I was wondering if anyone went their or knew someone who went there. I've heard mixed things about it from different people, especially about social life. Does anyone know if it's a really social campus or do a lot of people go home on the weekends? Is campus ministry a big thing there? Are service activities important and do a lof of students participate? How good are their academics? Do they give a lot of merit aid to students or not that much? Thanks for answering if you know anything about this school!!

nontradtransfer

I live in St. Paul and know a couple of people that go to Saint Thomas, so I'll try to answer some of your questions. From what I can tell there is a decent social life on campus, but since it is in a fairly sprawling city there are going to be a fair number of people coming in from off campus. Having said that, Saint Paul is a fairly easy city to navigate, and as I'm sure you know Macalester is right down the street (where the students tend to stay closer to campus), so if you're looking for a social life it should be there. I have no clue about the ministry, but most of the people that I know that take their beliefs seriously are pretty happy there, if that's any indication.

The academics are a mixed bag. I think it really depends on your abilities and your interests. I know a couple people who have transferred out (and up in rankings) because they didn't feel like it was rigorous enough. On the other hand, it seems like a good fit for some others. A lot of it probably depends on your specific major.

Merit aid might be hard to come by, but if you contact the admissions staff (and I think the staff, from the professors down to the secretaries, might be one of the best things about Saint Thomas, my experiences with them have only been positive) I'm sure they'd be more than willing to go over your specific situation.

Sorry that I couldn't be of more help, but hopefully there's something useful in there.

10college10

Thanks so much for responding! It's good to know all of that, espcially from someone who lives near by. If anyone else know anything about St. Thomas, good or bad, please post. Thanks so much!!

momofjon

Hi, our oldest son is an incoming senior at Univ. of St. Thomas. He has loved it there - great people, nice area, and his major is Chemistry and he felt that he had great profs, etc. He had a lot of math and science (high school dual-credit with college) and did have some questions about the rigor of the school (he went to a fairly high-functioning high school). Anyway - he has felt (and so have we, his parents) that the education was excellent. He went in thinking about engineering, but decided on Chemistry, and is now pre-med (and he got a 35 on the MCAT so that is an excellent score at any school!).

Merit aid is good there - at least for him, and that is one reason he chose UST. We do have relatives in town so that was a draw too - but he ended up with $6000 per year because he was a national merit finalist, $4000 a year for a math/science scholarship, and $12,000 a year for UST merit scholarship - so almost full tuition. His first choice for college was Wash. U. in St. Louis, and he did get in there - but out of $44000 they only offered $2000 scholarship and that wasn't doable for us.

momofjon