Welcome to the U of M

The mighty Mississippi River winds through the Twin Cities' home of the University of Minnesota. Founded in 1851, the University has a presence throughout the state with its five campuses and numerous research and outreach centers.

From the Crookston campus on the edge of the northern prairie to the newest campus, Rochester, less than 50 miles from the state's southern border, the University serves Minnesota’s families and businesses, while contributing knowledge and innovations to help build a healthier, sustainable world. With a graduate school established in 1905, the University has helped lead the nation in scholarship and higher learning.

Life-changing work, like the recent creation of a beating heart and stem cell transplant to cure recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), a once-fatal skin disease, shows the caliber of the University's research. Ranked among the top public research universities in the world, the University of Minnesota is truly driven to discover, and that goal reaches into every college on every campus.

The University was established as a land-grant college, meaning the federal government gave it land to use or sell to provide an education for students of all incomes. Being a land-grant institution meant you also had a commitment to your state's agriculture. Today, through myriad scholarships, the University helps its students afford tuition, housing, and books, and agriculture is still a focus of its teaching, research, and outreach.

As the U grew, so did the city around it, and the University has adapted its historic land-grant mission to fit its surroundings and has dedicated itself, through programs like the University Northside Partnership, to resolving complex contemporary issues in the urban age.