About Us

The University of Minnesota (officially the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The Twin Cities campus comprises locations in Minneapolis and Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, approximately 3 mi (4.8 km) apart.

The Twin Cities campus is the oldest and largest in the University of Minnesota system and has the ninth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 54,890 students at the start of the 2023–24 academic year. It is the flagship institution of the University of Minnesota System and is organized into 19 colleges, schools, and other major academic units.

The Minnesota Territorial Legislature drafted a charter for the University of Minnesota as a territorial university in 1851, seven years before Minnesota became a state. The university is currently classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is a member of the Association of American Universities. The National Science Foundation ranked University of Minnesota 22nd among American universities for research and development expenditures in 2022 with $1.202 billion. The University of Minnesota is considered a Public Ivy university.

The Minnesota Golden Gophers compete in 21 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference and have won 29 national championships. As of March 2024, Minnesota's current and former students have won a total of 90 Olympic medals