My son may be attending the University of Minnesota-Morris this fall.  Tell me about the school and the town.  

How is the indoctrination (politics) of the school?
Work opportunities outside of the school for students?
Entertainment?
How's the weather in the winter?
What major airports are nearby for flying home at Christmas?


...and finally, anything else we should know?

Morris is a pretty small town in Western MN.  Its right in the farmland/prairie region of the state.  The politics in the out state area are nothing like UofM in Duluth or Minneapolis.  Student admissions are going to be out state kids, not kids from bigger populations.  I think U of M Morris is more of a Ag, Tech, and LE school.  Work Oppurtunities I don't know.  Entertainment....if he likes to fish and hunt its a decent area.  As a life long Minnesotan, I think Jan and Feb suck.  Its not the snow.  Its the periods of below zero temps along with the constant wind.  Its basically a winter wasteland.  Nearest airport would probably be Moorehead/Fargo or St. Cloud which are probably 2 hr drives.

All the best!

This post pretty much sums it up.

Thanks for the information.  A couple of the sports teams are recruiting my son.  The available majors will fit in with his goals.  Winters might be interesting, I think it will only be slightly colder than where we're at, but the humidity will make it feel colder.  I also, wonder how he'll do in a town that small.  We're somewhat rural but not anywhere as small.

We'll be going there in two weeks to check it out.  

I used to be a city police officer there.  The University has it's own police department like the Minneapolis and Duluth campus.  It's a nice smaller town.  It's almost three hours from the Twin Cities.

Not sure if you still are looking for info but I graduated from there in 2004.  A choice I at least partially regret looking back 20 some years.  The main reason I went there was to be with my girlfriend (now wife).  Other reasons were low cost and proximity to home.

The school was, when I was there, probably one of the most far left/liberal schools in the midwest.  One professor I had would not stop talking fondly about his time at Berkeley, all the non STEM professors were very liberal.  When I was there, the school homecoming king was a guy, and the homecoming queen was also a guy.  Remember this was 20 years ago, that was a big enough deal it made national headlines.  I have not kept in touch since I graduated but I cannot imagine it will have done anything but shift father left since I left.

At the time I was there the elementary education program was very well known and highly regarded.  I got a Comp Sci degree and I can't speak to the quality compared to others but most of my professors seemed competent.

I liked the campus, the closeness of the buildings and the small town feel to it all.  In the fall the campus is beautiful and going for walks around town very pleasant.  The town is surrounded by farmland and in the winter the wind is brutal.  The roads outside the town sometimes drifted over and could have whiteout conditions in bad weather so you could be "snowed in" for a day or so after a major snowfall.

Regarding the town, it's small and there isn't a lot to do.  The town leans democrat but outside of campus it's far less noticeable (or was).  There is a small movie theater and a library and several bars and restaurants (I recommend Don's Cafe).  There is a river nearby where people can fish and some nice parks in town.  The town is not far from larger cities in the area such as Glenwood or Alexandria which have many more options for things to do.  The major airport in the state is MSP in the twin cities area which is about 3hrs from Morris. There is a regional airport in St Cloud about 1.5hrs away but I don't know what kind of options it has for flights.

For work opportunities, there are local businesses and the campus usually had lot of work study or part time type jobs available, but its also a town of 5000 so the job market will not be huge or lucrative.

Thats all I can think of right now but if you have specific questions I can try to answer them, hope it helps.

Thanks for the information.  

We went and visited the school about 4 weeks ago.  Flew into MSP and drove to Morris.  Spent the night there in the Super 8, small but clean.  We met one of the coaches and toured the campus with a student.  Had lunch with the coaches from a different sport and a couple of student-athletes, then finally met the head coach.  Froze our butts off that day, it was about 30 degrees but windy.  The humidity made the cold worse.  Where we're at 30 degrees without humidity is go without a coat weather.  After we got home, the school came through with enough scholarship money to make cost competitive with our instate schools.

My son has decided to go there.  He's hoping to do a couple years there and maybe move to a D-I or D-II school closer to home.  As far as the politics of the school and town go, hopefully we raised him right and it won't affect him too bad.  He'll be in STEM classes so hopefully not too much politics.  He wants to play college sports bad enough that he is willing to put up with the small town and school.  We're pretty rural, but not that small.

Hopefully it will work out.  

Don't know if your son will have time for work or play, but there's some good family owned businesses in the area that are paying really really good money for new hires and would schedule around classes & sports.  Or if he stays in town over the summer and needs a job.
If he hunts or fishes, shoot me a PM I can point out good public land for upland, waterfowl, & whitetail (even private land isn't that hard to get permission for), as well as area lakes with good fishing.