The University of Minnesota - Morris

Date: Apr 17 2011
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
The quality of education was great for the most part. I did have a few classes that were simply read a book, take a test. Otherwise quite a few were challenging and engaging. They teach you more then just memorize some facts and regurgitate. A lot of the professors were available, approachable, and helpful. Not many of the professors are doing research, but there is the UROP where students can be awarded a grant to do their own independent research under the supervision of one of the professors. This is a great opportunity. However there are few opportunities in Morris for internships. You'll have to commute to St. Cloud or Fargo for those opportunities or otherwise use your employment (if related to your degree) as your internship, which is what I did. It was disappointing. If you plan to work while in college there are very few jobs available in the community. I don't recommend Divine house unless you want to work overnights and weekends all the time. However there are work study jobs.

The college is liberal and diverse, but the students tend to be very traditional straight out of high school 18 to 24 years old. It does have a high school feeling to it minus the worse of high school. So if you happen to be non-traditional you may find yourself feeling very out of place. I entered when I was 22 and I'm graduating at the age of 26 even though I'm still young I felt quite older than many of the other students.

Unlike many of the student at UMM, I'm a student parent and the next part of my comment is for those who are student parents. So, if you happen to be a student parent interested in UMM, I'd recommend looking else where. The professors understand if you have a sick child and they?ll work with you, but there still is this feeling that you?re twisting their arm or you are on your last exception for having a sick kid. Basically the college has no policies related to student parents so you?ll get treated as a traditional student.

Also, the university does not offer child care on campus. Morris has one child care center otherwise there are quite a few in home daycare centers, but in reality few options and few openings.

There isn't family housing (although they are in the process of discussing it as they realized student parents will increase diversity). However the community has some good off campus housing options and it isn't too difficult to get on housing assistance compared to the bigger cities.

I?ve heard they are working of changing something to make the university a better experience for student parents, but I don?t know when or how long it will take. As of now even the parents pack doesn?t meet or have regular meetings.