Tuition, Cost & Aid

Large public school, but most students get some type of financial help. But even if you have to go it on your own, the quality education you can receive is well worth the price. But remember you are going to get out of college what you put into it. The dorms are small but clean and the food is great, especially since it's all you can eat. Taco Tuesdays are awesome! But maybe the best part about this school is that you pay a student fee once per semester and then things like laundry, movies, etc. are free. No lugging quarters around for us!

As research is so vital, it presents more opportunities than most other colleges in terms of summer jobs, publication, and that special something for your grad school application. In- and out-of-state tuition are relatively close, but low enough that it is affordable and maintains a high quality of teaching and services to its students.

College is not cheap these days, but it is almost necessary to go to college if you want a job that will support a nice lifestyle. Although the U isn't the most expensive, nor the cheapest they give a quality education if you are able to get into the classes that you need/want. A problem with this school is if you don't sign up for classes quick enough you won't get into the ones that are needed. Which is kind of a waste because you're paying about 30,000 a year and you might not even get into the classes you need for your specific major. Even though that's the case, the U does a nice job of giving out scholarships for those who deserve them or need them.

As a business student, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has a major aspect that I believe makes it one of the best Bang for the Bucks of schools in the Midwest. Apart from a challenging and large curriculum across the University, what this school has that others do not is the experience opportunities offered by the Twin Cities. The list of major companies that have their headquarters located in the Twin Cities area is extensive: Best Buy, Target, 3M (they make the Post it Notes), Land O' Lakes, General Mills, Piper Jaffray, Ecolab, Wells Fargo, Travelers Insurance, and Malt O Meal to name a few. With corporate headquarters so close to campus, students have the opportunity to gain experience with some of the best businesses in their respective areas. For business students like myself, it is a phenomenal opportunity to network with real world business professionals, explore potential careers and career paths, and have a great chance of employment with some of the biggest companies in the United States.

The U costs just as much, if not less, than any other good state university. But in addition, U of M offers a lot of on campus jobs, where you can earn pretty well. I hold a job and it's a fun environment and a very flexible work schedule. Also, being an out-of-state student, I love it that the cost difference between in and out of state isn't earth shattering!

Compared to many of the other schools offered to Hawaii students, I feel that this one is definitely a bang for the buck. The tuition is for 13 credits but you are allowed (and recommended) to take more than 13 credits so really, it depends on just how self-motivated you are. Tuition and room and board includes gym membership, laundry, student activities (and as I stated before: there are tons of student activities). There are discount student bus passes and rental bike (Minneapolis is very biker friendly. Common way to get around campus is to bike) rates though these are not free. There are, however, free shuttle buses that circulate the different areas of campus and a light rail is currently under construction. Since I am out-of-state, it was very hard for me to get scholarships to come to this school (and HI based scholarships are mostly for students going to HI schools) but my parents and I feel that this university does beat out the usual schools Hawaii people know. The price tag sounds hefty initially, but the opportunities here are worth it. You can get paid for undergraduate research, there are many student jobs on and off campus, higher education doesn't sound so daunting, libraries on campus have multiple special collections (Collection of comic books, Wizard of Oz, etc.). I think this college is worth it.

I think you are absolutely being challenged, the people are amazing, and the faculty is the best around. I just don't feel that people that work really hard get rewarded as much as they should compared to those that never show up and because they have professional experience ace a test. I think classes need to have a scale showing how much effort a person puts into there work as well as how well they know the actual material.

UMN is VERY generous with scholarships. There's no real application. Most merit-based scholarships just use the information that you fill out when you apply to the university; you may also be asked to write a 100-500 page blurb for some more specific awards. Another great thing is that UMN accepts AP credit, so that will allow people to go into more interesting classes earlier.

College is expensive, but UMN isn't too bad with its rates. The professors, like mentioned, know their material; the majority do research, so it's possible to find a job in a lab the first semester. If you get tired of dorm food, there are a lot of places to eat out at or order from. There are also convenience stores located within the dorms. Just swipe the UCard here. You only need to swipe the UCard for laundry, renting movies from the dorm front desk, getting packages, borrowing vacuums, etc, as well.

~There are tons of FREEBIES here, especially the first few weeks of school! Examples are tee-shirts, coupons for free burritos and Subway sandwiches, $5 gift cards to D'amico and Sons, and Vitamin Water bottles. There were even some guys walking around giving away free Jimmy Johns sandwiches one cold winter day!
~There are many opportunities to participate in PAID STUDIES. These are great for people that don't have time to put in several hours for a job but would still like to make money. The studies I've taken so far have paid $10 each and took me 20-30 minutes. That's like making $20-$30 an hour!!
~Aside from paid studies, there are many places around campus where you can work. ON-CAMPUS JOBS offer FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES that work around your classes.
~There are many FREE SERVICES available for practically anything you need. Need help writing your first resumé? Forgot your password to your computer and can't log in? Want to go swimming or work out at the rec center? Need to get an eye exam? These are all things that are included in the tuition.
~There's also a lot of FREE ENTERTAINMENT OPTIONS. Every Friday and Saturday night, there's something called Gophers After Dark. There's free movies, concerts, games, and crafts. The movies they show are ones recently shown in theaters, too, not outdated, boring movies.

You defintely get the bang for the buck and with the many scholarship opportunities and work study that the university it makes it possible for students to atten this great university and take advantage of their programs.