I currently live in Minneapolis, lived in MN my whole life, and went to the U of M: Twin Cities for undergrad. If anyone wants a direct contact for questions and stuff, please feel free to message me! I'd love to help however I can.
Yeah. If you're okay with taking a bus to school (the school has a great discounted bus pass), you can find similarly priced housing in Uptown, Loring Park, and NE away from undergrads. It's nice to get away.
I know this is an old post, but I wanted to reply for future reference.
I lived there for two years. Not the best experience in the world. It's very much an undergrad place to be and the road (University) is kind of always a disaster, so it's loud at night.
There are a lot of other apartments and whatnot in the area off of busy roads that I suggest checking out first.