Schools in Minnesota

• Minnesota has a total of 1,881 public schools, staffed by nearly 53,000 teachers whose average teaching experience is 14 years.
  
  
• There are 202 private and public post-secondary institutions in the state.
  
  
• Saint Paul Public schools educated more than 40,000 students during the 2006-07 academic year and had a graduation rate of 81 percent.¹
  

Highly Educated People

• Of those over the age of 25, 93 percent have a high school diploma.²
  
  
• In 2006, the percentage of Minnesotans with a bachelor's degree was 33 percent. Among younger Minnesotans (25 to 34 years of age), 35 percent had college degrees, ranking Minnesota eighth in the nation.
  
• In the overall population, 23 percent have some college but no degree; 10 percent have an associate's degree; 22 percent have a bachelor's degree; and 11 percent have a graduate or professional degree. 
  
• In 2006, Minnesota ranked sixth in the nation for the number of people with graduate degrees, and eighth in the nation for the number of people with doctorate degrees..
  
• In 2007, approximately 70 percent of Minnesota's high school seniors took the ACT test. Minnesota's composite score of 22.5 was the highest in the country among the 25 states where the majority of students take the ACT. Minnesota has led the nation in average ACT scores for three consecutive years.³
  

Minnesota Colleges & Universities

• Minnesota has seven state universities, plus four campuses of the University of Minnesota. the state has 25 public two-year colleges, 62 private colleges and universities, 18 private graduate and professional schools, and 86 private career schools.
  
  
• About 65 percent of Minnesota's high school graduates enroll in a post-secondary institution in the fall following graduation. The participation rate has remained the same since 2001 and ranks Minnesota fifth in the nation for high school students who immediately continue their education.
  
  
• Eighty-four percent of Minnesota high school graduates attend post-secondary institutions in their home state.
  
  
• The University of Minnesota, which has four campus sites in the Twin Cities, Morris, Crookston and Duluth, is the state's largest public college and is ranked among the 17 top research universities in the country.
  
  
• The largest private college is the University of St Thomas, which has a main campus in Saint Paul and a business campus and law school in Minneapolis.
  
• The percentage of students who graduate from a Minnesota four-year post-secondary institution after six years is 58 percent..
  
  
• In the 2005-06 academic year, Minnesota post-secondary institutions awarded 82,141 diplomas, certificates or degrees, including 31,838 bachelor's degrees, 15,213 master's degrees and 2,099 doctorate or professional degrees.
  
  

Dollars and Sense

• In 2004, the median annual income for full-time year-round workers with a bachelor's degree was $50,578 for men and $40,300 for women.
  
  
• Minnesota undergraduates received $782 million in grants and $949 million in student and parent higher education loans in 2004-05 academic year. They earned an additional $39 million from federal and state work study jobs.
  
  
• For the 2007-08 academic year, the average undergraduate tuition and required fees charged to full-time, Minnesota residents enrolled in regular, on-campus programs are approximately:
  
  
  • $4,432 at state two-year colleges,
    
  • $6,175 at state universities,
    
  • $10,084 at the University of Minnesota campuses,
    
  • $25,237at private liberal arts colleges

Source: ¹Saint Paul Public Schools, ²Minnesota Department of Education, and ³Minnesota Office of Higher Education. Also the U.S. Census Bureau. www.mnscu.edu/, www.mnprivatecolleges.com/.