Metropolitan State University (Minneapolis, St. Paul, Mankato: credit, transfer to, neighborhood)

[Call me Gina]

Hi all. My family will be relocating from Austin, TX to Minneapolis this summer. My sister is thinking of tagging along with us and going to college in Minneapolis. She's looking at Metropolitan State (in addition to U of M). Does anyone have any feedback? What is the school's reputation? Is it a good school? We can't find anything on-line, except for a negative review about parking and being approached by pan-handlers while going to class. TIA!

[Cruz Azul Guy]

I have never attended Metro State but my impression is that it's a second-rate school. If your sister has a choice between Metro State and the U, she'd be silly not to choose the U.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Slig

I have never attended Metro State but my impression is that it's a second-rate school. If your sister has a choice between Metro State and the U, she'd be silly not to choose the U.

That is my perception as well. I'd go one more notch down than Slig. This use to happen (and still might): you show your experience and they give you credit for work experience. They use to do a lot of online classes as well.

IF that still happens, (credit for experience; heavy online studies) it will be looked at as a pseudo mail order degree. I don't dispute that they obviously succeed in educating and probably have some good instructors but how can an employer take this college serious??

Perception hangs on for years even when things change. I'd stay away.... I'd pick a community college and transfer to a State school if I was her (assuming you won't get in state rates and pricing will be key for a couple of years). This is my perception anyways (which is 15 years old). But it does show how long a bad reputation can last.

[Call me Gina]

Thank you so much for your help. We're all the way down here in TX, and that's the kind of feeling we were getting. It looks like those are the only two state schools in/around Minneapolis - is that right? She would be a transfer from a private university here, and the university isn't really being much help in the way of advice.

[Cruz Azul Guy]

Here's a list of schools from Wikipedia:
List of colleges and universities in Minnesota - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Those would be the only two close choices for public schools but there are lots of private schools in the Twin Cities. The private liberal arts schools are all highly accredited. I would say about half the schools in the Private school list are good and the other half are Metro State caliber (AKA - crappy).

[Explorer John]

I've contemplated going there to pick up some masters credits myself. They have a strong focus on adult learning (although not as much as years past) so classes are often scheduled evenings and weekends to accommodate work/home life. They also have a good number of online classes and tuition is a lot cheaper than the U. I've had a couple friends go there after high school and they like the experience. However, they did say there was a lack of community amongst students because of the nature of the school.

If your sister is looking for a more "traditional" university experience she would probably find it at the U. They also have much better course selections and its hard to argue with their reputation. It would probably be a bit closer to Minneapolis since Metro State's main campus is on the East Side of St. Paul. However, I wouldn't let the neighborhood deter you too much as stuff can certainly still happen (and has happened) on the U campus.

[WannaBeinBoston]

Let's not forgot the many great small private liberal art colleges in St. Paul. I would take that over the U of M any day, but hey, that's where I got my graduate degree, so I can't trash it that badly.

[Oildog]

There are many quality institutions of higher learning in the twin cities, as education is highly valued there. The U is the largest but there smaller private colleges like St Thomas, St Catherines, Hamline, Augsburg, Concordia, Macalester to name a few.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

That is my perception as well. I'd go one more notch down than Slig. This use to happen (and still might): you show your experience and they give you credit for work experience. They use to do a lot of online classes as well.

IF that still happens, (credit for experience; heavy online studies) it will be looked at as a pseudo mail order degree. I don't dispute that they obviously succeed in educating and probably have some good instructors but how can an employer take this college serious??

Perception hangs on for years even when things change. I'd stay away.... I'd pick a community college and transfer to a State school if I was her (assuming you won't get in state rates and pricing will be key for a couple of years). This is my perception anyways (which is 15 years old). But it does show how long a bad reputation can last.

I very much disagree with this (and other) summations (and I very highly doubt that "credit for work experience" thing and find that suspect). I think the reason it gets this rap is because it gets compared to other schools in the area that often rank as some of the best in the nation (U of M - multiple campuses, Macalester, Carleton, etc.), and not a lot of people outside the cities of Mpls/ St. Paul are familiar with the school. Metro State is part of the MNSCU system (MN State Colleges & Universities), which has a good reputation, and I would say that Metro State itself is of the same caliber as Mankato State, which granted doesn't raise the bar too high but it's still a very, very far cry from the "psuedo-mail-order-degree" summation. It's not a Phoenix University or NAU - it's a state college and probably about as good as a lot of small state colleges in this country that aren't too widely known or highly ranked.

The Human Services program at Metro State is actually pretty respectable and IMO has a good reputation here in the cities - I have known a number of their grads and instructors and they all tended to be pretty bright and competent individuals. Like others have said, it does tend to attract more of the non-traditional crowd (likely has more adults going back to school or kids deciding to continue to live with parents at home, go to school, and work simultaneously) which isn't a bad thing at all academics wise - generally this is a highly-motivated demographic - but if your sister is looking for the full "college/ campus life experience" it may not be the right place for her.

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by WannaBeinBoston

Let's not forgot the many great small private liberal art colleges in St. Paul. I would take that over the U of M any day, but hey, that's where I got my graduate degree, so I can't trash it that badly.

I would take my small, public liberal arts college education at the U of M, Morris (and its tuition) over any small, private liberal arts college education anywhere- I actually transferred to Morris from a small, private liberal arts college with a great reputation and found the academics and calibre of students at Morris to be infinitely better (and at half the price).