My daughter, a high school junior, is starting to compile a list of colleges to attend. A couple are in Minneapolis/St. Paul.
We are considering a trip over MLK weekend, mid-January (she has no school the Friday before the holiday) to either Minneapolis (or Boston, where she also likes a couple of schools).
We'd like to visit schools when classes are in session and students are there.
This particular weekend would be a good time for us as daughter will be in between semesters and will definitely have no homework, etc.

Daughter has never been to Minneapolis, so would this be a good first time for her to check the place out?
Fwiw, we live in the Chicago area, near the WI border, so we are very familiar with cold and snow. But it gets kinda ugly here mid-winter with the dirty piles in parking lots, street curbs,etc.

Yes, it will be a good time for her to visit as long as she keeps in mind that this is as bad as it gets. Parking will be a problem because of the snow piles taking up parking spots and street parking is often odd/even side of the streets. As for the weather, who knows? Good luck and try to enjoy this exciting time for her.

Thank you!
Oh, I was planning on getting by without a car - flying in from Chicago and taking a taxi to hotel... and trying to get around by public transit or walking, as that will be her situation when she is in college.
I was thinking that, too - January will be as bad as it gets - if she likes it then, she'll definitely like it in warmer weather.
I have driven through St.Paul in August, and in October and the weather was very pleasant.

Skip the taxi and take the light rail. You can stay in downtown Minneapolis, St. Paul or by the airport/MOA. All are served by light rail now and the Green line runs through campus.

January is fine to visit, not sure if there are any sporting events that weekend to watch. If not campus may be slightly emptier than usual because of the holiday but not a big deal.

We are supposed to have a slightly warmer winter than normal, but averages don't matter if you hit a cold snap. Either way you will be fine, I lived in Madison for 6 years and the weather down there by you is not so much different than here in Minneapolis

Forget I said that its a good time to visit. Classes don't start until Tuesday after MLK so if you want to visit when classes are in session you'll need to pick a different weekend.

I would guess it will be a somewhat busy weekend with students coming back from winter break. But that's a whole different atmosphere from a typical weekend.

Thanks for the tip about light rail from airport. Even better. If she does decide to go to school there, she will need to get herself to the airport (or Amtrak) without a car.

One of my requirements for her to go away is that she needs to be within an hour or 90 minutes from a major airport - or if it's a few hours away, it still needs to be by an Amtrak station, in case we cannot go get her by car. And she needs to be able to get around town without a car.
Her own criteria is that she be in a city, not a small town, and not in a rural area.

Good to know about the weather... We have a weekend place 2 hrs northwest of Madison, and the weather is only slightly cooler than here - sometimes in summer, it is actually warmer, as it's near the Mississippi.

Oh no! re: classes starting that Tuesday. Well this changes things... maybe President's Day wknd.. or we'll have to wait until early June, after all. Thanks for checking!

Ok, the schools we are looking at - Augsburg and Hamline - will both start the spring session a week before MLK day, so we could tour that Friday and I believe Hamline has Saturday tours.

http://www.onestop.umn.edu/calendars/

There is a very short session between spring and summer that starts May 26th and ends June 12th. So she could possibly sit in on a class or two if you wind up waiting until early June to visit.

And our weather is a bit colder on average for sure. Just saying that you have probably experienced temps just as cold as what we normally get so it won't be a major shock.

Green line runs to the Amtrak station in St. Paul (Union Depot). Blue line runs to the airport (both terminals). So either way she won't have a problem using light rail to help get home. Amtrak is having a lot of delay issues due to all the freight trains running to/from the North Dakota oil fields, but that may be resolved by the time she actually starts classes if she ends up here.

There's also Megabus that runs to Madison and Chicago. I'd take that over Amtrak at this point.

I didn't see your post about Augsburg and Hamline. I just assumed you were talking about the U of M.

Here's the route map for the Green Line, you can check and see how close it gets to them. I'm not familiar enough with them to know.
http://www.metrotransit.org/metro-green-line

Thanks so much, WhereAreWe, for all the transit info.