What are good Twin City Colleges? (Minneapolis, St. Cloud: credit, transferring to, schools)

[CloudyDaysForever]

I live in the west part of Minneapolis and am looking at going back to school. University of Minnesota seems like an obvious choice, but it's very expensive ($350 a credit) and just getting more expensive. If they keep raising prices like this, I'm going to be spending $15,000 a year on ONLY tuition by my final year. Also, I tried visiting classes and nearly every professor was a difficult to understand foreigner.

What colleges in this area are good colleges that are preferably less expensive than the U of M? I would like to go for Engineering.

[golfgal]

For engineering, the U of M will be the least expensive school in the Twin Cities. The rest of the colleges are all private universities and run in the 40-50K range, however, if you have good grades you can usually get better scholarships and aid from private colleges/universities then you can from state schools so don't be so focused on the cost of a school right now.

Hamline, Macalaster, St. Thomas are all great schools. You could also look south of the cities at St. Olaf and Carleton.

[pepe1]

Originally Posted by CloudyDaysForever

I live in the west part of Minneapolis and am looking at going back to school. University of Minnesota seems like an obvious choice, but it's very expensive ($350 a credit) and just getting more expensive. If they keep raising prices like this, I'm going to be spending $15,000 a year on ONLY tuition by my final year. Also, I tried visiting classes and nearly every professor was a difficult to understand foreigner.

What colleges in this area are good colleges that are preferably less expensive than the U of M? I would like to go for Engineering.

May we ask what specific discipline in Engineering you are interested in (Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Chemical)? For most disciplines, the U of M is your only option for a 4 year degree. Not to say you couldn't take some of your Math (which any engineering discipine will require alot of) and English Composition classes anywhere and transfer them later on...In fact, most community colleges have an engineering program tailored for transfer into the U of M (or other large state Universities).

[CloudyDaysForever]

I was thinking Electrical. I've heard of the MNTC, what schools offer an engineering program for transfer into the U of M?

[pepe1]

Originally Posted by CloudyDaysForever

I was thinking Electrical. I've heard of the MNTC, what schools offer an engineering program for transfer into the U of M?

Electrical is one of the disciplines where the U of M is your only choice for the 4 year if you are wanting to stay in the Twin Cities.

I know Normandale has an engineering program tailored for transferring to the U of M. The essence of the program is lke the MNTC, but it is different in that it is very tailored to the engineering disciplines and heavy on math and physics. You take 2 full years of calculus (and any remedial math you might need to place into calculus), a full year of calculus based physics, full year of english composition, and several engineering electives.

I would imagine Inver Hills would have something similar and probably Anoka Hennipin. It is definetly a good way to save some money as you are able to take nearly 2 years worth of credits at the community college.

[knke0204]

Just screw the cities and say hello to Husky land. SCSU!

After all, their hockey team and basketball team is better than the U!!

[CloudyDaysForever]

Originally Posted by knke0204

After all, their hockey team and basketball team is better than the U!!

I definitely think hockey and basketball is great method for choosing a school! In fact, that's why I fully endorse the U of M spending 40 million on a new stadium! I hope one day our entire future can be based around who wins the super bowl! Man, China and India are huge suckers for not spending millions of dollars and countless hours on sports!

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by CloudyDaysForever

I definitely think hockey and basketball is great method for choosing a school! In fact, that's why I fully endorse the U of M spending 40 million on a new stadium! I hope one day our entire future can be based around who wins the super bowl! Man, China and India are huge suckers for not spending millions of dollars and countless hours on sports!

Wow, chill it buddy.

It was a joke. Maybe if you frequent this forum more you would understand that I'm a huge SCSU fan, a rival of the U of M in hockey. Try posting more than once a week and you would know that.

Also, Athletes and Acadamia have a direct correlation. Often Validictorians of graduating class are All Star Athletes, many times competing in 3 sports year 'round.

So, what come's first the apple or the tree?

[Big G]

You might not want to dismiss St. Cloud State so readily.

They have an EE program that attracts a lot of Twin City people, both college-aged and adult. From the west side of the Cities, the commute isn't unreasonable.

It's not as whoop-de-doo as the U of M's program, but at least the professors won't be as full of themselves. Also, you'll be taking classes from the actual professors, not TAs. The price tag will certainly be lower.

If you're starting from ground zero, going to Normandale, North Hennepin, or Anoka-Ramsey is excellent advice. All the community colleges have pre-engineering curricula in place that will allow an easy transfer to the engineering programs at the U of M, UMD, St. Cloud, MSU-Mankato, and Winona State.

[knke0204]

Originally Posted by Big G

You might not want to dismiss St. Cloud State so readily.

They have an EE program that attracts a lot of Twin City people, both college-aged and adult. From the west side of the Cities, the commute isn't unreasonable.

It's not as whoop-de-doo as the U of M's program, but at least the professors won't be as full of themselves. Also, you'll be taking classes from the actual professors, not TAs. The price tag will certainly be lower.

If you're starting from ground zero, going to Normandale, North Hennepin, or Anoka-Ramsey is excellent advice. All the community colleges have pre-engineering curricula in place that will allow an easy transfer to the engineering programs at the U of M, UMD, St. Cloud, MSU-Mankato, and Winona State.

While I agree with much of this, I don't think it's fair to say "At least the professors won't be as full of themselves"... But again, I've had almost no experience at the U of M... But, You still get that professor smugness at SCSU. My time at SCSU however brought me really close with my professors, something I wonder if I would have been able to do at the U.

I agree with the Normandale, North Hennepin, Anoka-Ramsey advice if money is an issue. I never heard much about SCSU's engineering program, but I do know that UofM's is great, and so is UMD's.

SCSU does have satellite classrooms in Maple Grove but I believe those are for MBa or Graduate programs.

From Maple Grove to SCSU campus it's about an hour drive if you take it easy.