Young Parents Moving from Texas to Minneapolis around University

[Camden Northsider]

Originally Posted by vegmamamegan

Could you tell me more personal experience at this campus? It's like my dream college! I already looked up that I can retake my SATs in October but I can't seem to find on the website if they accept new students for spring semester? They have the on-campus apartments that look nice and I saw it said if you have "life experience" (maybe having a baby at 17 qualifies me for that?) you could be considered for the apartments as a freshmnan.

Sorry Vegmamamegan- I didn't see your post. I really liked Morris, and I've come to appreciate my education there a lot more since graduating (and wished I would have gotten involved in more activities while I was there). I was a transfer there and a lot of my friends ended up being transfers in my first few years of attendance.

One thing about Morris is that it's not for everyone. For persons that came from large urban environments, it was sometimes overwhelming to move to such a rural area (and one that gets pretty cold). Although Alexandria (about an hour away) has most of the things people would want as far as shopping, and Morris itself has grocery stores, a Pamida, and restaurants- you still will want to have a car available to you to make trips to towns like Alexandria, and/or just navigating around Morris (although they do have some public transit, and it's a small town). Morris itself closes down pretty early every night with the exception of a couple of bars patronized primarily by students, and I think there's one movie theater that shows whatever they're able to get (I believe it has one screen and the movies are generally not of the new-release variety). So if entertainment options are important to you, and/or having a lot of job prospects while attending school, it's probably not the right place.

However, the campus does have a lot of activities regularly going on, and if you're able to adjust to the small town way of life and appreciate the slow pace and being out in the middle of nowhere on the prairie, and want a great affordable education- it's great.

I lived in the on-campus apts for a semester or two and they are pretty nice, and a nice location to be at. There should similarly be numerous other apt and house options throughout the town available for rent, and, if you're interested in low-income housing options- there are a couple of complexes, Key Row (on the far side of town) and a senior assisted-living place (although I think this is only available to single college students if not a senior) that, if you qualify, are insanely cheap places to live and nice complexes.

There used to be quite a few non-traditional students that went there- both from out of state and the local surrounding areas. Also, although many of the students that go there are from MN, there used to be a quite a representation of students from across the country and internationally as well which I would assume is still the case (at one point it was one of the more diverse schools per capita in the Midwest).

Small class sizes, quality professors available all the time for assistance and advising, and a lot of smart bookworm study-types (note that it's considered pretty academically rigorous so it'll be impossible not to devote a lot of time to studying and still get decent grades), but still a place where you can have fun if you make it and/or get involved in some of the campus activities and events. If able to, I would suggest visiting campus as the drive out there really gives you a good idea of how rural it gets, and seeing the town and campus will help you to picture whether or not you could live there.

Also- if you're worried about your grades/ SAT scores (you mentioned you will be retaking SAT- you could also look into the ACT which is more standard in the midwest), you should really focus a lot on your life experience in the essay section as this will very much increase your likelihood of getting in. Although my high school transcript/grades/ extracurriculars/ ACT score were all very strong, my transcript from the college I transferred from was pretty awful and I was able to get in which tells me they're willing to look at the bigger picture. Good luck with your decision and/or application and feel free to DM me if you have any more specific questions that you think I might be able to answer.

[Slig]

To the Original Poster, you do realize that U of M Morris is over 3 hours away from IKEA right? I just wanted to make sure since that was addressed in your original post. Also, it was mentioned that to get a decent apartment in Minneapolis would run $900/month. That simply isn't the case. You can rent houses in my neighborhood for that price. I have a buddy who is looking at apartments right now in South Minneapolis and Richfield in the $500 range. You may have to look a little bit but it can be done. From the sounds of it he has found some decent options at that price level as well. If you were originally considering going to the U of M Twin Cities campus I don't think it should be completely ruled out.