@Easy-joy here is a guide to kind of assist you in looking at apartments in different neighborhoods.
Neighborhood: Uptown
This neighborhood has more of a younger, late-college-to-late-20s vibe. There are a lot of bars and restaurants mixed with coffee shops. One positive is that three express bus routes run from Uptown to the West Bank of UMN (where all your classes will be, at least initially).
Neighborhood: Dinkytown
This is the primary area for undergraduates, so it has that type of feel. There are a lot of bars and restaurants here too, and when the weather is good, you can definitely walk from this area straight to classes.
Neighborhood: Loring Park
Loring Park is essentially between downtown and Uptown. It’s clustered near the Walker Art Center, which is a fairly famous museum. You can get to school really quickly via 1-2 buses. It’s not really walking distance, but you could pull it off in spring or fall. It tends to be a bit more expensive than Uptown and Dinkytown, but you’re close to virtually everything.
Neighborhood: St. Anthony’s
This is a little bit past Dinkytown. It has its own flavor and things to do. Not a ton of ’14 students lived there – most were clustered in Uptown, Loring Park, downtown and West Bank – but you can get affordable rents and be close to everything.
Neighborhood: West Bank/Seven Corners
This is where MA-HRIR classes are; it’s the west side of the Mississippi River. There are 1-2 apartment complexes here, and a couple of bars frequented by UMN grad students (law, business, and policy). It is very close to school, so you might want a healthy distance there … but from a convenience standpoint, you can’t beat it.
Neighborhood: Downtown
This is what you’d expect from a metro downtown. Bars, restaurants, shows, theater, all within walking distance and accessible via bus or light rail (light rail won’t run to UMN until late 2014, though). It’s a little bit more expensive but it can be worth looking into.
Neighborhood: St. Paul
Less MA-HRIR students live in St. Paul, but it can be a good fit for many. It’s about a 10-12 minute drive to school, although if you live near a Campus Connector bus, you could take that straight to the West Bank for classes. You can look up the Campus Connector bus stops on UMN’s website.
Neighborhood: Northeast
More quirky, “hipster”-y than some of the other neighborhoods. Really good bars, restaurants. Not very close to supermarkets in some locations, which can be a challenge; also not always on the most direct bus lines.
In regards to your tuition question, i have no idea