Here are some tips for selecting schools, based on an analysis comparing each school to all others across dozens of factors:
Schools Concentrating On Secondary School Teachers
- Focus: For schools with a focus on this career area, look at University of Minnesota and Inver Hills Community College.
Fastest Response From Schools
- Request Info: For the fastest information for prospective students, look at the Spotlight schools on this page.
Student Body
- Part-Time: For schools emphasizing part-time studies, consider Metropolitan State, Minnesota State Moorhead, Saint Cloud State, and Bemidji State.
- Female: For schools particularly welcoming to female students, consider St. Catherine University.
- Diverse: For a diverse student body, consider Hamline and MCTC.
- Adult Learners: For lots of adult learners, consider Concordia, St. Catherine University, The College of Saint Scholastica, and University of St Thomas.
School Setting
- Out of State: For geographic diversity, take note of St. Olaf College, Martin Luther, Minnesota State Moorhead, and University of Minnesota.
- Dorms: For a residential campus environment, take note of St. Olaf College, Martin Luther, Gustavus Adolphus College, and Concordia.
Excellence
- SAT: For students with high SAT scores, look at St. Olaf College, Gustavus Adolphus College, University of Minnesota, and St. Catherine University.
- % Accepted: For selective institutions, look at University of Minnesota, Augsburg, Concordia, and St. Olaf College.
- Class Size: For small class sizes, look at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Olaf College, St. Catherine University, and Concordia.
Student/Alumnus Reviews of Schools for This Career and State
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St. Mary's • Winona, MN
Studying Communications With A Theatre/Speech Emphasis (completion in 1980)
• 12/6/2011
"I felt I got a fantastic education. Of course, at that age, I didn't fully appreciate the opportunities that were available and didn't study as hard as I should have. If I had it all to do again, at this age, I would earn a 4.0, because I value my educational opportunities now."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | St. Mary's is an excellent school, with a caring and professional staff. They provide an excellent education for those willing to work and take advantage of it. I have recommended the school to several of my students each year. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | At the time I went to school, they had a strong education department. I haven't really kept up with it through the years, but being a Catholic private college, their standards were high. |
| Program Quality | 9 | I think there could have been more methods courses specific to the teaching field. There should also be more counseling about what majors to combine and courses to take to teach in each area. |
| Instruction | 8 | It would have benefited me to have specific methods courses in Theatre Speech and Language Arts. Our methods courses were very general. I would also have been able to handle a class better, if there had been instruction on classroom discipline. |
| How Difficult | 7 | The program was difficult, but not that challenging. If you kept on top of the work and completed tasks in an organized way, it was enjoyable and informative. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Often, learning would start with bookwork, but it would be supplemented with activities. Even in the 1970's St. Mary's professors seemed to understand the learning style differences among their students. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 6 | I attended in the 1970's and the schedule was fairly rigid. Today, they offer online, off campus and flexible schedules. They have developed as each of those areas has grown. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | When I attended, they had a very extensive library funded by donations. Facilities were abundant and accessible to students. The college was relatively small, so advisors and professors were available to all students. Class sizes were small and there was considerable one-on-one time with instructors. |
| Social Life | 10 | There were ample opportunities to become involved in extracurriculars and sports on campus. Because it was a smaller campus, most people knew each other, so socializing was extremely easy. There were dances and activities every weekend. To say there was a wonderful support system among the students would not be an exaggeration. |
| Placement Services | 9 | The placement department was very helpful in steering me toward potential jobs and helping me put together applications and references. Even today, I can access records and have them sent to potential employers. |
| Alumni Network | 9 | I am constantly contacted by the alumni program, but I don't really participate in it to any degree. The school was very supportive in helping with job placement, although I found my first teaching assignment in a newspaper classified. |
Bethel University • Saint Paul, MN
Studying MAT In Secondary Lang. Arts Education (completion in 2002)
• 12/15/2011
"I felt prepared entering the classroom. And, I'm still teaching, so they must have done something right!"
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I guess it was a fast program that prepared me well. For adults who are looking for a career shift or an easy master's degree, Bethel is the place to go! |
| Program Reputation | 7 | Bethel is a university that graduates great teachers. There are a lot of them around the Twin Cities and they all have good reputations. |
| Program Quality | 6 | I felt well prepared, but because it was a master's program, I didn't feel terribly connected to the school. That made it difficult for me to love the experience. Definitely worthwhile, however. |
| Instruction | 6 | The teachers seemed to know a lot. What they lacked was some practical application. I learned far more from my teacher who was in the classroom every day. |
| How Difficult | 3 | School has always been easy for me. My undergraduate degree was much more challenging than my teaching license degree was. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Obviously, student teaching is very hands on. Most of what we did was experiential or lab-related. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 9 | It was a night and evening program until the very end. Obviously, for student teaching, we had to be around during the day to teach. |
| Academic Facilities | 5 | It's a pretty small school and it doesn't have a great library. I didn't spend any significant time on campus. |
| Social Life | It was a program for working adults. Many of my classmates had families. Most of us were more interested in spending time with the friends we already had. | |
| Placement Services | 2 | The school didn't really do anything to help me actually land a job. They mostly just gave me the tools to do it myself. |
| Alumni Network | 5 | I think it is pretty good. I'm just not all that interested in alumni activities. |
University Of St. Thomas • St. Paul, MN
Studying Curriculum And Instruction (completion in 1999)
• 2/11/2012
"St. Thomas was the best experience for working teachers I could ask for. It provided me with fine professional development opportunities."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | The cohort model really facilitates learning. The program honored the professionalism of adult teachers and learners. |
| Program Reputation | 9 | St. Thomas has a fine reputation for teaching and social work. Their work in critical pedagogy is outstanding. |
| Program Quality | 9 | It was an excellent way of developing myself professionally. St. Thomas was the best mix of the theoretical and practical I could have asked for. |
| Instruction | 9 | Our instructors were experienced professionals. I was impressed by their insight and high standards. |
| How Difficult | 9 | It was rigorous in that all discussions and activities required extensive preparation. The cohort model we used was very motivating and encouraged us to do our best. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | We were asked to design lessons for our current students. We also reflected on our daily practice. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 9 | We were scheduled into evening and weekend classes. When possible, the professors negotiated their schedules around ours. |
| Academic Facilities | We did not meet on campus. We met offsite at our union hall. | |
| Social Life | We were a cohort of teachers who met in the evening after the school day. We really did not avail ourselves of campus resources. | |
| Placement Services | I was already fully employed as a teacher and continued to be after getting my Masters Degree. | |
| Alumni Network | 5 | We get calls for contributions and receive the alumni magazines. I wish that there were more opportunities to keep track of other alumni. |
Saint Cloud State University • Saint Cloud, MN
Studying French K-12 Teaching; ESL K-12 Teaching (completion in 2009)
• 2/24/2012
"I was very satisfied and felt I gained as much as I could have out of the experience. I do wish the college and campus had been more inclusive of nontraditional students and made more of an effort to include nontraditional students into the college atmosphere."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | I have recommended SCSU to people looking to enter the field of education, because it is a relatively inexpensive school to attend. The campus is small, yet there is a huge variety of things to do and classes to take. The professors in the education program were very supportive, and the student-teaching process was selective and very beneficial with supportive teacher partners. |
| Program Reputation | 7 | SCSU has a highly recommended teaching program. However, my specific program choices (French K-12 Teaching and ESL K-12 Teaching) are not highly popular programs, and they are very small programs at SCSU. The education program is one of the best in the state of MN. |
| Program Quality | 9 | I was well prepared for handling diverse students, human relations aspects of my position, and the linguistic background I needed to teach. I also learned a lot about the state testing and national testing requirements. |
| Instruction | 8 | Most of the curriculum was relevant to my teaching. I studied a lot about second-language learning, as it applied to both of my degrees. The classes were broad enough in scope to cover language learning strategies in many settings and for different modalities of learning. |
| How Difficult | 8 | The program was strong in the requirements for student teaching. Many student teachers did not qualify and were guided into different areas of study. We were expected to perform as professionals at all times. Academically, with my linguistics courses, the coursework was difficult, but the professors were supportive and encouraging. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | There were hands-on projects and group projects required for almost every class. Every education course had us creating materials that we would be able to (theoretically) use in the future. There was also extensive book learning in each course. This was a great mix for me. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 7 | Most classes were offered as options for the school year or summer. My program included both undergraduate and graduate students, so there was a wide variety of session lengths and hours (evening, daytime, weekend) available for most courses. |
| Academic Facilities | 9 | The school has a great support system for the education program. The library is fantastic and has many materials that can be used for any teaching planning purposes that are needed. There is also a large section of juvenile materials and teaching materials available. Professors were mostly accessible, and flexible with scheduling. Advising for the education program was a bit of a mess, because there were multiple advisors for different parts of each program (i.e., a student-teaching advisor, an education program advisor and a "core" program advisor). |
| Social Life | 4 | SCSU has a strong social network. However, I attended as a young mother and did not participate in many on-campus activities. They have begun branching out with different family-oriented opportunities in recent years, but when I attended, it was not that way. |
| Placement Services | 4 | We received help in locating jobs through job fair opportunities. Also, SCSU hosts a giant Listserv, which has job listings from across MN (EdPost). This was a great help in my own personal job search. However, I did the work on my own; there wasn't anyone who guided us through this process. |
| Alumni Network | 3 | The school's alumni network only exists to ask for donations. There has not been much contact to me from the alumni network, except for financial requests. |
University Of Minnesota • Minneapolis, MN
Studying Mathematics Education (completion in 2007)
• 2/20/2012
"I enjoyed the classes. I enjoyed the people."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Again, there aren't that many options for a Master's program. If Mathematics Education is your goal, I think this program is superb. |
| Program Reputation | I guess I don't know much about it. There are very few graduate choices for my field, so I chose the only one I knew about, regardless of its reputation. | |
| Program Quality | 9 | I had a great experience with my advisors and practicum placements. The courses I took were very entertaining and informative. |
| Instruction | 9 | The methods classes provided a good variety of the different levels of mathematics that I teach. The Master's courses I took allowed me to focus more or information that is relevant to me. So overall, there was good variety and good depth. |
| How Difficult | 4 | I don't think the courses were necessarily "challenging" for me, but I've never really been challenged by anything academically. I do feel that it was a general consensus among my cohort that the classes we easy. The content was simple. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | We were assigned many readings, and I'll admit that I skipped many of them, but they were always supplemented with discussions and hands-on activities. I especially like that in the mathematics courses we investigated many ways to incorporate manipulatives into the classroom. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 3 | Courses were offered on a cohort basis. You took the class the one time it was offered, or you didn't get the class. It was a "full-time" program, so everyone took classes together. |
| Academic Facilities | 6 | It's a very large university, so even if those resources were limited in the education building, you could walk across the mall and find labs and libraries and whatever you were looking for. |
| Social Life | I was too busy working and attending school full time to partake. | |
| Placement Services | 5 | I don't think they had lots of resources. There was a lot of assistance available for resume building and job searching skills, but job placement was not an option. |
| Alumni Network | I don't know of any alumni network. I get lots of phone calls asking for donations. |
University Of St. Thomas • Minneapolis, MN
Studying Master Of Arts In Teaching (completion in 2003)
• 3/18/2012
"I believe my school provided a well-rounded/balanced experience for me. I think I took advantage of what the school offered, considering I wasn't working full-time when I was taking my classes."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | Yes, I would recommend the University of St. Thomas. I found the professors to be supportive. I wasn't always crazy about the attendance policies, but they were fair. Group projects made students learn about each other and develop strategies to use in the classroom. The time went quickly and I could go as fast as I wanted my classes to go. |
| Program Reputation | 8 | They place a lot of students. I know most of my graduating class got jobs, but I don't know if they're still working in the field. |
| Program Quality | 8 | I think the school could have done a better job of preparing me for jobs in school with struggling students. |
| Instruction | 8 | It goes back to preparation for working with struggling students. Perhaps more of the graduates went on to work with higher-level students, but I could have used greater preparation to work with students who need more help to stay in school and to perform better on regular things like reading and writing. |
| How Difficult | 8 | Everything went fairly well, until I took research and statistics. My student teaching was fairly difficult and time-consuming. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Teaching in and of itself was hands on. My education started with a lot of book learning, but it progressed to spending a lot of time with students. I had practicums and student teaching. Even while student teaching, the students still had to meet once a week to debrief about classroom practices. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | Many night classes for full-time working students. Summer, weekend and online classes were also available. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | They really provided everything needed to make the graduate experience pleasurable and easy. Great hours and accessibility. |
| Social Life | As an older student, I wasn't really involved in social activities. I still do receive emails and mailings, so I could still be involved if I wanted to be. | |
| Placement Services | After the first couple of years, I never heard another thing. It would behoove them to continue following up, even 10+ years later. | |
| Alumni Network | I haven't utilized it. I don't know how good it is, nor do I know how beneficial it is. |
Walden University • Minneapolis, MN
Studying M.S. In Curriculum, Instruction And Assessment (completion in 2012)
• 4/4/2012
"I feel like I was challenged in my program. My program better prepared me for my career."
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale
| Characteristic | Rating | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Would Recommend? | yes | The online aspect was great for flexibility. The coursework was challenging. |
| Program Reputation | 5 | It is an online university so I feel like it carries a little stigma for that. Otherwise, it is well accredited. |
| Program Quality | 9 | I would have loved to get a Master's degree in a traditional way, but my job did not allow for me to due to the distance I drive daily. The program at Walden was challenging. |
| Instruction | 10 | Walden was very challenging. The curriculum was relevant to my career. |
| How Difficult | 8 | I felt challenged, but it wasn't to the point where I ever felt like I couldn't do it. The program could have been a little more rigorous. |
| Hands-On vs. Bookish | Due to the fact that it was an online course, there was only so much "hands-on" work available. We did do some projects with other students. | |
| Schedule Flexibility | 10 | The classes were online. I could complete my assignments on my own time. |
| Academic Facilities | 10 | I loved the online databases through Walden Library and found them very useful. |
| Social Life | I attended the college online from out of state. I'm not sure about social events. | |
| Placement Services | I did not use the job placement and career services assistance. I have a job. | |
| Alumni Network | I am a recent alumni. I am not sure about the network at this time. |
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