Bruininks: U of Minnesota is tougher, but reaching out more than before

Right after his appeals to the legislature to spare the University of Minnesota during budget talks, President Robert Bruininks writes an opinion piece in the Grand Forks Herald about the U's academic progress and increased enrollment, saying he never could have made it there as a student today:

Over the course of the past decade, the university has made a concerted effort to strengthen the preparation of incoming students, the quality of their educational experience and the value of their knowledge and abilities to Minnesota and the nation. ...

In the past six years, applications to the Twin Cities campus have nearly doubled to 36,800. In that same period, we’ve seen steady improvements in the academic profile of incoming students and steadily climbing retention and graduation rates — today, 91 percent of Twin Cities students continue after their first year, and four-year graduation rates have roughly doubled in the past decade.

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