Graduate Student Handbook

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Beginnings

In 1851, seven years before the Minnesota Territory became a state, the University of Minnesota was chartered as a preparatory school. After a promising beginning, it was beset by financial crises and forced to close during the Civil War. In 1869, after years of dedicated service by state leader John Sargent Pillsbury, the University reopened under its first president, William Watts Folwell, with nine faculty members and 18 students. Two students graduated at the first commencement in 1873.
The first master's degrees were awarded to a handful of students in the 1880s. The first doctorate was awarded in 1888 to Charles Burke Elliott, a lawyer who majored in history and went on to become associate justice of both the Minnesota Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands. The Graduate School became a separate unit of the University in 1905, but advanced degrees were earned by only a limited number of individuals throughout the early 1900s. Under the leadership of Dean Guy Stanton Ford, the Graduate School grew rapidly and became the University's center for research and service to the state. Between 1912 and 1917, Graduate School enrollment rose from 159 to 464, and the quality of the faculty and student body improved dramatically. Ten years later the enrollment had more than quadrupled.

By 1941, nearly 4,000 graduate students were receiving degrees in 71 major fields including agricultural economics, biophysics, English, music, and sociology. After World War II, the Graduate School broadened its commitments to many more areas of research and teaching, prompting University historian James Gray to call the Graduate School "a microcosm of the reflective world."

Today

As a graduate student at the University, you will join about 10,600 men and women from all 50 states and 140 nations. You have chosen from among The Graduate School’s 150 master’s and doctoral degree programs and have begun to meet some of its graduate faculty members (totaling over 2,200). No matter what your field, you can look forward to greater intellectual independence at one of the top-ranking research institutions in the nation.

The University embraces about 2,300 tenured and tenure-track graduate faculty, 12,000 academic and civil service staff members, and 51,000 day school students on its Twin Cities campus and supports an international population of more than 3,600 students.  The University is also one of the largest public institutions of higher learning in the United States. As a center for creative thinking, the University has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and service. The University provides social, cultural, and economic benefits for all of Minnesota and beyond. In short, you have entered a regionally preeminent and internationally respected institution offering unmatched comprehensiveness, diversity, and quality.

The opportunities are endless, but you may sometimes need advice on how to find them. That’s what this handbook is all about. It suggests ways to open doors and avoid barriers—but it’s just a starting point. Faculty, staff, and students, the essence of the University, are your most crucial resource.

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