urbanMSP

I thought you guys would be interested in reading the U of M Campus Master Plans, if you haven't done so already.

2009 Master Plan for all Twin Cities campus areas: http://www.cppm.umn.edu/assets/pdf/2009_BOR_mp.pdf

2009 Master Plan for East Gateway District: http://www.cppm.umn.edu/assets/pdf/east ... ict_mp.pdf

Both are definitely worth browsing through, if you're into this sort of thing.

On interesting thing in the gateway plan is that they plan to close 4th at 23rd, or is that already in the works because of the light rail?

On interesting thing in the gateway plan is that they plan to close 4th at 23rd, or is that already in the works because of the light rail?

Yes, I'm quite sure this has already happened.

Wasnt sure where else to post this. Article from the daily about some carpenters union protesting Doran for not using their union for Mill and Main. Seems like a poor move by the union. But I am not really sure how all those work.

http://www.mndaily.com/2012/11/29/doran-clashes-union

This story does seem to justify some of the luxury housing boom at the U and explain why there is a demand for it now that didn't previously exist. I'm not saying it's not a bubble, but it does shed some light on the changes in the makeup of the student body over the past decade.

http://www.startribune.com/local/183454871.html

This story does seem to justify some of the luxury housing boom at the U and explain why there is a demand for it now that didn't previously exist. I'm not saying it's not a bubble, but it does shed some light on the changes in the makeup of the student body over the past decade.

http://www.startribune.com/local/183454871.html

B-b-b-b-bubble!

Also, I'd stress that there are huge differences in college preparedness that in many cases are largely related to family income level. Just from working in Admissions at the U and seeing lots of things, there are a hell of a lot more competitive students from the western suburbs than anywhere else really. The U spends a lot of money admitting underqualified students (so their demographics aren't completely skewed) and teaching them how to write sentences.

How does the U maintain such a high avg. ACT score from its students then?

College of Science and Engineering, College of Biological Sciences, and to a lesser extent Carlson are extremely selective. To the point that a white male from the suburbs with a 31 or a 32 on the ACT isn't much to write home about.

College of Science and Engineering, College of Biological Sciences, and to a lesser extent Carlson are extremely selective. To the point that a white male from the suburbs with a 31 or a 32 on the ACT isn't much to write home about.

I actually heard Carlson denies students with 4.0 GPA's....so I know they are selective!

I think the state's college system has a bit of an identiy crisis. The U is a land grant institution, which originally meant that it serves the population of the state. And in many ways that's still at the core of the U mission. But that doesn't mean it needs to provide access to all students. The U is a world class institution, for world class academics. Not everybody needs that world class degree, or is capable of getting it, and for those people there's the MNSCU system.

I think Kaler and whoever runs MNSCU need to sit down with some legislatures and really hammer out what role each institution should be expected to play.

Seems like white male from the suburbs with a 31 or a 32 on the ACT are also the types who end up going to Urban MSP happy hours...

Seems like white male from the suburbs with a 31 or a 32 on the ACT are also the types who end up going to Urban MSP happy hours...

I only got a 30

Anyone who was on Minnescraper in 2008 may remember my 17 year old self freaking out over having my admission decision "postponed" that Spring. Which apparently isn't quite the same as waitlisting but it was still pretty deflating.

I hear it's kind of a faux pas to talk about your test scores into your 20s, but for the sake of conversation I had a 30 on the ACT (I think that's like 92nd percentile?) and a whole year of AP credits. And that was for the College of Liberal Arts, which is middlin' as far as being hard to get into. For comparison, I dated a guy a year below me who got into to the Honors program, also for CLA, with the same test score. So it's not all about the scores, but that's really still the best way to measure tens of thousands of applicants in a few months.

Gosh now I feel old for graduating in 2008.

Does the U of M not do faculty interviews or essays? Seems like it would almost be easier to get into a private liberal arts school where things like essays, references, or interviews can get you to stand out.

Gosh now I feel old for graduating in 2008.

Heh. Try 1996

Gosh now I feel old for graduating in 2008.

Heh. Try 1996

Try that's when my mom was born!

Gosh now I feel old for graduating in 2008.

Does the U of M not do faculty interviews or essays? Seems like it would almost be easier to get into a private liberal arts school where things like essays, references, or interviews can get you to stand out.

Nope. You send in the app, and they accept you. I think it puts way too high of an emphasis on test scores, since it dropped me right into the honors program, which I wasn't nearly self-motivated enough to be in, and got kicked out of after two years. Oh well.

Also, UrbanMSP happy hours? I really need to visit the anything goes forum sometimes...

Gosh now I feel old for graduating in 2008.

Heh. Try 1996

Try that's when my mom was born!

Is this a typo? This is seriously blowing my mind. If you really mean this statement literally, you cannot possibly be more than like 4 years old.

Am I missing something here?

I got a *cough* 33 and applied to the U because the application was one page. I got accepted, but to the Ag School I think because that's where pre-Landscape Architecture was at the time (I could be wrong, all I know was that my college was in St Paul even though I never ever had a class there). I transferred to CLA later with little difficulty (except that I had to talk to my advisor for once). So I guess the workaround is to apply for one of the colleges that no one cares about and then transfer.

I surprised that kind of loophole has been closed. Back in the Pleistocene era when I attended Cow Poly, the architecture program was virtually impossible to get into. People that were rejected would enroll in the CRP program and hope to transfer into the architecture program at a later date. They were wise to that and made it virtually impossible to transfer to the most selective programs.