University of Minnesota–Twin Cities

The University of Minnesota Twin Cities is the flagship campus of the University of Minnesota system. It is the state's land-grant university and was founded in 1851, seven years before Minnesota became a state. The campus straddles the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, with an East Bank and a West Bank, and includes a separate St. Paul campus for agriculture, veterinary medicine and design. Minnesota is one of the few US universities that houses its land-grant, medical, law and major research functions on a single campus.

The Twin Cities campus has more than a dozen colleges. They include the College of Science and Engineering, the College of Liberal Arts, the Carlson School of Management, the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and the Law School. Others are the Medical School, the School of Public Health, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences. Research centers include the Masonic Cancer Center, the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute and St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. Surgeons there performed some of the earliest successful open-heart operations in the 1950s.

The campus enrolls about 54,000 students, and roughly 16,000 are in graduate and professional programs. International students come from more than 130 countries. About 25 Nobel laureates have ties to the university, including the agronomist Norman Borlaug, an alumnus. Other alumni include Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.

Graduate study includes research PhDs and a wide range of professional degrees, including the MBA, the MPP, the MPH, the JD, the DVM and the PharmD. Doctoral students are commonly supported through graduate research and teaching assistantships and fellowships. The year runs on semesters. Graduate students live in a major metropolitan area anchored by headquarters of companies such as Medtronic, 3M and General Mills.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities lists 345 graduate programs across 56 subjects: 216 master's programs and 124 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in education, public health and health & medical sciences. University of Minnesota–Twin Cities holds rank 72 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.