University of St Thomas

I’m just writing a review about the beautiful location and the friendly people. If you come here in the fall when the leaves are changing and walk around, you will feel the presence of God and, if not God, then the Mississippi River, the paths, the priests that you’ll run into while walking on those amazing trail paths (paved). The school looks like a really nice place to send your son or daughter. Really.

I cannot write about the school itself. I can only document experience as this school hosting a conference.
The campus is lovely. The rooms are spacious that we sleep in and are clean.
I like the on-​campus cafeteria and selections.
This is an excellent location for a conference or camp of some kind.
Local area is hipster in general.

I loved it there! Best ever!

There are so many colleges and universities out there that I highly recommend high school students to research and get a feel for before deciding its the right one for them. That said, here is what I have to say about this school.
First and foremost, St. Thomas IS a catholic school. Its a religious school with catholic values, professors, and student. Bear that in mind. I did not realize how catholic it was til a year into the school and if I had known this, I personally would have never attended this school. Three theology courses are required. Having never read the bible, I took the courses and learned the materials and have confirmed that I am an atheist, for sure. FOr this I am thankful for these courses and the last theology professor who ended my third theo course with some surprisingly pleasant and great wisdom works in this ancient book.
That said, here are various information to consider before going here:
— Majority of students are christians and so contribute as a whole to how religious this school is (can be a pro or con depending on your religion)
— Most classes are actually pretty hard since it seems that the whole faculty is taught to set HIGH standards for student achievement (a good thing) but difficulty is mainly dependent on the individual professor. Professors who have taught at top schools in the US even admitted that St. Thomas’s school agendas and materials were even more difficult to learn/​teach. Bear this in mind!
— RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH who your professor is. Like every college and/​or department, there are great professors and there are absolutely horrendous professors out there. YOUR grade is dependent on consistency of that professor and your work ethic, so work hard to find the best professor for each class you will have (this will contribute to your liking the school or not)
— Professors here (90%) want to get to know you! They literally do. They want you to meet them, befriend them, give them feedback, etc. This is a good thing especially for students who like one on one learning. They will even take it out on you for not coming in to talk or meet in their office! (Dock points, lower your grade, even glare). They want you to show them you care about your grade.
…that said, I am not one of these types of students and did not want to friend my professors. I like formal settings and relationships so this was something I dislike tremendously about this school. I do not like professors getting into my business, but most students do (…yikes!)
— The biggest department at this school is business. BIGGEST department, therefore most of the students attending St. Thomas is doing so for some sort of business degree. There are over a hundred business professors and adjunct prof so business students have a wide variety to chose and pick from, as well as a huge selection of different types of business courses to select from. This can be fun and exciting for business students… but not so much for everyone else who is not majoring or minoring in business.
…all other departments are much smaller in size so there is limited professors and limited selections of classes to chose from (not a good thing). Some departments of decent sizes are english, math, and psychology, but everything else is smaller in faculty/​courses. So if your department is small and full of awful professors, you will be stuck with taking classes over and over with them.
…that said, sometimes smaller departments can be a good thing since it can bring all the students majoring in that department closer and they can even get to know their professors more (pro or con).
— furthermore, this is school is expensive as Sarah mentioned. Yes it is, and the money given to the school is used for other projects (rather foolishly) than giving grants to departments or to students who need them.
…I had a professor (better one) mentioned that he had voted for the expansion of the science area in the south campus, but INSTEAD, money was given to fund the NEW athletic building. This is a real setback to this school. Instead of funding the expansion of the science and engineering department (which is innovation, which will lead to growth, jobs, and even more money for the school), the trustees («rich old guys») who give money to this school has decided to fund the athletic center possibly for St. Thomas to gain sport fame and doe from the games they play.
…This is a COMPLETE setback to this private school. If this school plans to be one of the top schools in Minnesota, it needs to rethink its agenda and fund its science department, which is the only department that is progressing in all forms (medicine, technology, etc). I also think that it can push this school past its «religious» old faith believing values (crap: which is making this school suck) to modernity and innovation.
But then again, jocks (athletes) always tend to win as the geeky department is OVERLOOKED as always. BOOOO!!!