Grad Schools in Minneapolis

Minnesota colleges and universities invite you to consider Minneapolis, a city that offers much by way of education, culture, and professional opportunity. Once known as the City of Flour and Sawdust, Minneapolis is now known by a newer nickname: the City of Lakes. Thirteen lakes and numerous other bodies of water grace this dynamic city! With a 2016 estimated population of 413,651, The City of Lakes is the larger of the Twin Cities, which also include Saint Paul, Minnesota’s state capital. Saint Paul and Minneapolis exist side-by-side, with just an invisible boundary (and perhaps a friendly sign) separating them. Together, the Twin Cities contain about 3.5 million people, making the metropolitan area the second-largest economic center in the U.S. Below are some examples of popular programs from our partner schools.

Minneapolis Neighborhoods

Abutting both banks of the Mississippi River, Minneapolis has 13 lakes; numerous wetlands, rivers, creeks, and waterfalls; and plenty of trees, bricks, and pavement to complement its wetter land. The city has a decidedly beautiful balance between urban and natural flair. In many areas, Minneapolis is a walker-friendly city, so you might be tempted to do your thinking for school while wandering through neighborhoods. Here are some places you might consider for doing some pondering:
  • Excelsior: Filled with Victorian homes, brick buildings, and a well-loved waterfront, Excelsior has the spirit of historical whimsy and offers a break from city living. While it is indeed located in the city, its homey residential areas and bustling but quaint downtown give it a more relaxing vibe. Head here for swimming, ice cream, and long strolls.
  • Linden Hills, as its name preludes, brims with gently rolling, tree-lined streets. It’s bordered by a greenspace and blends vintage buildings with modern amenities and luxury. It’s a particularly great area for finding good and interesting eats.
  • Downtown East is home to steel, concrete, and culture. Head here to for a distinctly city feel, but also to enjoy museums, theaters, and an extensive system of walkways and trails. Use this opportunity to see how Minneapolis blends the old with the new.
  • To literally get out of the city, head to Robbinsdale, a suburb just five miles outside of downtown Minneapolis. Here you’ll find Hackenmueller’s, a meat market famous for its house-made sausages and all things BBQ. This area is up and coming and a great place to sit and consider possibilities.
  • Lynnhurst, an area with historic stops for a once-thriving street car.
  • West Seventh, a diverse area with evidence of early immigration from Europe.
  • Woodbury, a once-farm-town turned modern-and-upscale mini-city.
And of course, you could consider living in any of these areas while attending one of many schools in Minneapolis.

Supplement Your Studies with the Arts

First and foremost, let’s give a nod to just some of the incredible talent born and raised in the land of 10,000 lakes, Minnesota:
  • Prince (born in Minneapolis, in fact!)
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald (born in Saint Paul)
  • Charles Shulz, who created the comic strip, “Peanuts” of Charlie Brown and Snoopy fame (born in Minneapolis)
  • Bob Dylan (born in Duluth, but lived in Minneapolis at one point in his life)
Perhaps there is something in Minnesota water that makes for great talent? You might consider going to school here just to find out! And now, on to theater! With an infusion of $500 million from individual donors and foundations, Minneapolis has built a stunningly diverse and eclectic theatre scene. World-class productions grace the stages of performance halls and historic theatres and, in the summer months, express themselves in theatre-based festivals, such as the Minnesota Fringe Festival. Here are just some of the city’s many theatres:
  • Ames Center
  • Guthrie Theater
  • Minnesota Orchestra
  • Ordway Center for the Performing Arts
  • Orpheum Theatre
  • State Theatre
  • Pantages Theatre
  • Brave New Workshop
Speaking of Performances Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” is made, recorded, and broadcast from Minneapolis. (And Garrison Keillor is also from Minnesota!)

Tator Tots and Hot Dishes to Supplement the Fishes

Minneapolitans are well known for their love of casseroles and tater tots, two items that frequently grace tables, especially in long, cold winters. These city dwellers are also fans of Nordic cuisine that’s often chock full of root veggies, wild greens, venison, fish roe, dried mushrooms, seaweed, and milk. With a wave of immigration from Somalia in the 1990s, east African food became big in the city, and Native American food gives a respectful nod to the area’s earliest dwellers. Minneapolis is also home to a number of award-winning chefs, and the food scene in the city is among the most respected in the U.S. An Apple Is Not an Apple Is Not an Apple: Not all apples are created equal, and anyone who has had a Honeycrisp apple knows that. Honeycrisps are “apple cultivars” that were developed by the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station’s Horticulture Research Center at the University of Minnesota. They’re sweet, crispy, and delicious. A Hamburger Stuffed with Cheese: That’s all you need to know, really! Definitely gets your hands on this local take on a burger!
New York’s Younger Sibling Minneapolis’ thriving theater scene gives the city the nickname “The Mini Apple.”

Minneapolitans Sure Can Eat, But They’re Also Healthy

There’s a reason why Forbes magazine once listed Minneapolis as the healthiest city in the city: the city devotes itself to maintaining green spaces and providing plenty of opportunities for residents to exercise, eat well, and live health life styles. Minneapolis parks are among the city’s most treasured features. The Grands National Scenic Byway, which connects a series of parks by roadway for cars, bikes, and pedestrians, covers just over 50 miles in a circular path throughout the city. Partakers can access seven districts along the byway and enjoy some of Minneapolis’ most beautiful sights:
  1. Downtown Riverfront: an area that runs along the Mississippi River and includes the Saint Anthony Falls.
  2. The Mississippi River gorge: an area that extends from downtown Minneapolis to Minnehaha Park. This portion of the byway goes by the University of Minnesota and across several bridges.
  3. Minnehaha: an area that includes numerous lakes and falls.
  4. The Chain of Lakes: a portion of the byway that crosses seven lakes.
  5. Theodor Wirth: an area that includes parks, a golf course, and the Eloise Wildflower Garden.
  6. Victory Memorial: an area that runs along the northwestern edge of Minneapolis and has numerous memorials sites and bridges.
  7. Northeast: a section that runs along northeast Minneapolis and crosses numerous parks and a golf course.
A Runner’s Paradise Runner’s World once ranked the Twin Cities number 6 of 25 of the Best Running Cities in America.i
With all of Minneapolis’ opportunities for athleticism, physical therapy is a treasured resource. Graduate degrees in physical therapy and occupational therapy help students learn how to support people who want to increase, improve, or recover their athletic and physical abilities.
Remember Rollerblades? The company Rollerblades got its start in Minneapolis and popularized the sport of inline skating.

Brrrrrrr. Minneapolis Is Cold! (But Very Green in the Summer!)

Weather wise, Minneapolis is known for its frosty cold winters. The average high temperature in the city’s winter is 23.7 degrees F. Night time lows in winter hit an average 7.5 degrees F. These low temperatures (amidst humidity and snow, mind you) make March’s 41-degree highs seem downright balmy. Mid summers in Minneapolis see an average high of 84.4 degrees and an average low of nearly 59 degrees. Falls and springs in Minneapolis lie between the extremes of summer and winter and include falling, colorful leaves and blossoming flowers. While Minneapolis is a bustling metropolitan city, it’s also home to plenty of trees, plants, and flowers, all of which become vibrantly green after cold and wet winters.
Did You Know? Six percent of Minneapolis is water. This makes the city a great place for outdoor water recreation in summer and winter. Boating, fishing, and ice skating are just some of Minneapolitans’ favorite pastimes. And, having a pair of ice skates in Minneapolis is much like having a toothbrush—completely normal and expected.

Economy

Behind Chicago, the Twin Cities have the largest economic center in the Midwest. Its primary industries include commerce, finance, health care, rail and trucking services, and industry itself. Five Fortune 500 corporations have home bases in the Twin Cities: Target, Ameriprise Financial, U.S. Bancorp, Xcel Energy, and Thrivent Financial. In 2005, Popular Science named Minneapolis the “Top Tech City” in the U.S., in part thanks to its above-average Wi-Fi availability, medical trials, transportation solutions, university research and development expenditures, energy conservation, and advanced degrees in the workforce. Minneapolis is the 15th richest city in the U.S.ii
Did you know? The famous Mall of America is the size of 78 football fields and has a rollercoaster at its center.
Business graduate programs are particularly popular in Minneapolis, perhaps because of the city’s strong industry, commerce, and finance sectors. Students interested in leadership and management positions might pursue an MBA, or Master of Business Administration. Upcoming banking and finance specialists might want to pursue a master’s or doctorate degree in Finance, or a finance degree with an emphasis in banking or financial planning. Students interested in the business aspect of health care might opt to earn a degree in Healthcare Administration and Management. Minneapolitans Love to Give: More than 40 percent of adults volunteer in Minneapolis. The most given-to organizations in the city include Catholic Charities USA and the American Refugee Committee. Other big organizations, such as Target and the Minneapolis Foundation also love to give. Charity is a beloved art in this city. Perhaps you could earn a master’s or doctorate degree in Non-Profit Management and lend your hands to Minneapolis’ loving deeds?
Did You Know? The Minneapolis sculpture garden decorates more than two acres of land, making it the largest urban sculpture garden in the country.

More About Popular Programs in Minneapolis

Business Degrees: Business graduate programs help students pursue positions in management and leadership. Depending on the program, they may also help business professionals specialize their knowledge and skills in areas such as finance, accounting, marketing, and healthcare administration. Some areas of business students might study include: Education Degrees: Education graduate programs help educators and administrators in the field of education grow their knowledge and develop advanced skills across areas of education. Some specific subjects students might study in education include: Health and Medicine: Health and medicine graduate programs help students pursue careers as doctors, nurses, researchers, occupational therapists, healthcare administration, and a number of other areas. These are just some of the fields of study popular in Minneapolis and surrounding areas such as Saint Paul, New Brighton, Richfield, Cedar City, River Falls, and others.

Schools in Minneapolis and Beyond

Plenty of schools in Minneapolis offer graduate programs across disciplines. Here are some sponsored schools:
  • Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
  • Concordia University, Saint Paul
  • Capella University
  • Bethel Seminary, Minneapolis and Saint Paul
  • Augsburg College
  • Crown College (Saint Bonifacius, MN)
  • University of Saint Thomas, Minneapolis and Saint Paul
  • Hamline University

Find Minneapolis Grad Schools

Colleges in Minneapolis, Minnesota provide numerous options for earning a graduate degree. Using our site, you can search by Program Level (Certificate, Master’s, or Doctorate degree) or format (campus, hybrid, or online). You can also search by subjects, such as business, engineering, education, and numerous others. By clicking on these and other subjects, you’ll be directed to a more specific list of areas within them. If you’re not sure what you want to study, you can always check out our list of Minneapolis colleges and programs below (note that some of them might be offered in nearby cities).

i web.archive.org/web/20070818034452/http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0%2C7120%2Cssssssssssssssssss6-239-283–8155-4-1X2X3X4X5X6X7-8%2C00.html | ii en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis

  • National University

  • Wake Forest University

  • Western Governors University

  • Grand Canyon University

  • Colorado State University Global

  • Purdue Global

  • Saint Mary's University of Minnesota

  • University of St. Thomas (MN)

  • University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

  • Metropolitan State University

  • Augsburg College

  • Northwestern Health Sciences University

Sponsored Result

Study anywhere. Study any time.

Join the millions earning their degrees online!

32.6% of graduate students were enrolled exclusively in online courses in 2019*.

X