speal

St. Paul campus is actually in Falcon Heights (a small suburb north of the western edge of St. Paul). It's not walking distance, but there is an inter-campus bus (between the east bank, west bank, and St. Paul) that runs very frequently (every 5 minutes 7am to 6:30pm, every 15 6:30pm to 10:00pm, and every 30 from 10:00pm to midnight). You could easily live near St. Paul campus and commute to Minneapolis every day. The bus has its own private road most of the way, and can make the trip in ~10 minutes depending on traffic on the Minneapolis end. The St. Paul area I was referring to was in the Highland Park neighborhood, which has a little more life than the area surrounding St. Paul campus. It's more or less due south of St. Paul campus. There is good express bus service there, so you can get to/from the East Bank in about 30 minutes during rush hours. It's also on several bus lines that take you to downtown or the light rail station so you have easy access to campus, downtown, St. Paul campus, the Mall of America, and the MSP Airport. Some google maps: Minneapolis Campus (East Bank): http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Coffman+Memorial+Union,+Minneapolis,+MN&sll=44.975296,-93.24971&sspn=0.028659,0.06609&ie=UTF8&ll=44.970992,-93.213758&spn=0.028661,0.06609&z=15&iwloc=A St. Paul Campus: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Cleveland+Ave+and+Buford+Ave,+St.+Paul+MN&sll=44.917843,-93.186024&sspn=0.007172,0.016522&ie=UTF8&z=17&iwloc=A Highland Park: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Cleveland+Ave+and+Ford+Parkway,+St.+Paul+MN&sll=42.395618,-72.531524&sspn=0.014959,0.033045&ie=UTF8&ll=44.917843,-93.186024&spn=0.007172,0.016522&z=17&iwloc=A Another nice place to live in Minneapolis: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Hennepin+Ave+and+University+Ave,+Minneapolis,+MN&sll=44.984671,-93.187182&sspn=0.007164,0.016522&ie=UTF8&ll=44.986337,-93.25308&spn=0.006981,0.016522&z=17&iwloc=A For the last link, look in the neighborhoods south and east of here - there's much less bus service to the north and west. I should mention that I'm renting a place from Dinnaken Property Management (http://www.dinnaken.com). They have a couple of undergrad apartments, and then two senior/grad apartments. All four of these places are just East of campus, and their rates are pretty reasonable for the location. They've been really pleasant and helpful all year. The two grad places (Tairrie House and Fulton Townhomes) tend to fill up quickly, so you may want to get on the waiting list now if you're interested. Again I'm not affiliated, except that I'm renting here.

I couldn't give you any first-hand information about the quality of the rentals/managers there, but I have seen many signs for aaapartments.com posted in front of some units along 4th street and back in the neighborhood north of there. If you're willing to look toward St. Paul, there is a good property management company called Well Maintained Apartments (wellmaintainedapts.com) that rents in the Highland Village area (nice collection of shops, good connection to downtown and campus by bus). I will ask around and see if I can get you some more information about rentals northwest of campus. I've had good luck finding rates and smaller apartments at everyaptmapped.com, and it gives easy access to a walkscore for the surrounding area. Of course, I'm not affiliated with any of the above companies/websites. Good luck, and I hope I can get some more information for you.

Uptown is going to cost you a bit more than the neighboring areas, plus it's teeming with undergrads since it's a trendy place to be now. Admittedly, they're the upper-class undergrads and they tend to go elsewhere for parties, but it may be worth looking around more. An area I've always wanted to live is centered around University Ave and Hennepin Ave. There are quite a few apartments/condos, plus there's easy access to Uptown, Downtown, and campus all on the route 6 bus. There are some great restaurants, an enormous liquor/cheese shop, and nice grocery within a few blocks of this intersection.

[quote name="Louiselab

I'm doing my undergrad here, and I grew up in the Twin Cities area, so I'm pretty comfortable around campus. After Chicago, I'd say the Twin Cities is one of the most expensive rent areas in the Midwest, although it's low even compared to smaller towns out East. I'm currently paying $1100/month for a small-ish two bedroom that's a 10 minute walk from campus, although this is a particularly good deal for any sort of apartment within 20 minutes of campus (walking). You can find houses and apartments for quite a bit less if you go out toward St. Paul. The biggest thing to remember is that the winters are not THAT bad. It gets a little tiring around this time of year, and there are some gloomy below-zero weeks in mid-January, but in general it's pretty easy to deal with. People here know how to drive in snow and ice so traffic doesn't back up for the whole winter. Campus and the downtown area are both well connected by tunnels and skyways, so if you can't bear to go outside you can get by with a quick dash between the occasional building and still get to class/work/lab and out to dinner. Bus service is quite good around rush hour times (express buses usually beat the commuter traffic because they pass on the shoulder), but the service frequency really drops off on weekends. There is also a good campus bus service that gets you between the Minneapolis and St. Paul (ag., ecology, and a few other departments) campuses, as well as between the common residence areas and DInkytown (a nice grouping of restaurants, shops, and bars/clubs North of campus). I hope you'll all consider coming - I've really enjoyed it here and I'm sad to be leaving this Fall.