Visited in late March. No snow on the ground but glad we wore heavy winter jackets and boots as the temperature was right around freezing. We ate at the Hard Times Cafe, which was a fun dive with solid vegan food, and Kimchi Tofu House, which was a tiny but total amazing Korean restaurant. Flew into MSP International (nice airport!) and took an Uber to and from campus. It’s about a 15-minute ride. Campus vibe is a solid mix of traditional and urban features as the school is set right in the city but occupies a well-defined area on both sides of the Mississippi. The public transpiration options are amazing. Only saw one dorm, which was very standard issue; definitely no frills and very cozy. Some must-see stops are the very impressive fitness center, Northrop Mall, Walter Library, Weisman Art Museum and crossing the Washington Avenue Pedestrian Bridge over the Mississippi between the East Bank and West Bank campuses. Check out the Shoe Tree on the West Side where grads throw a pair to celebrate finishing their degrees. Classroom buildings seemed well maintained. While most are traditional, the classrooms in Bruininks Hall – with a lecture at the center surrounded by round tables equipped with laptop hook-ups and screens around the room – show a move toward experimenting with new models that take advantage of technology and a more collaborative style of lecturing and learning. The U definitely exceed our expectations. It’s big but they do a good job of suggesting ways to make it feel small.
Just visited UMN a few days ago with my D25 and we loved it. We are from the west coast and decided to fly to MN on a whim during spring break to check out the school. My daughter wants to attend a big school in an urban area and UMN definitely fit the bill. We thought the campus was just beautiful. It seemed like a very social school-groups of students walking around together and hanging out/lounging on the grassy quad. Student population is very diverse, which is important to my daughter and to us, her parents. The info session was informative and not overly long, which we appreciated. UMN wasn’t on my daughter’s radar until recently, but after our campus visit, it’s now at the top of her list!
I don’t really have any tips or recommendations, other than that I’d recommend walking around the Dinkytown student neighborhood to get a feel for the off campus student housing and commercial neighborhood. It’s very cool and a lot of the apartments and houses where the students live have front yards, porches, patios, etc. where students can be seen hanging out (picnic tables, bbqs, bb hoops and other fun stuff) and socializing. So it had a classic college town vibe. Go Gophers!
Hi,
can anyone suggest which accommodation options are good for freshers. we have selected following as preference Youdof hall as it is very near to my daughter college. Is this good option for fresher and international student.
I’d recommend checking out the uofmn thread on Reddit for a more robust discussion about housing options. I feel like the student perspective you’ll get there is more valuable. My only thought about Yudof is make sure your student is independent enough to cook their own meals since it is apartment style living. Sometimes, as a freshman, it’s nice to not have to worry about that.
I checked reddit and face book groups for accommodation and housing related information but what i see is mostly discussion about room mates in the apartments outside of university. I didn’t see any discussion about university dorms
I don’t have any experience with those specific dorms or that part of campus but here are some other resources and guidance:
Here’s the main reddit, and then if you put either “freshman housing” or the name of the specific dorm you should get more threads with dorm specific discussions.
Also, look on YouTube, some students post videos showing off their dorm rooms. The UMN housing web pages have have video tours of each dorm. Click through to each neighborhood and then each specific dorm: https://housing.umn.edu/live/neighborhoods