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At first when I heard about Minerva, I thought the entire concept seemed cool. But, upon further research and my judgement, here’s my opinion:When I opened their website, and went through academic programs, I found majors and concentrations. But, unlike other colleges’ websites, I was unable to find the course curriculum which gives an idea about what classes someone can take. Now, this raises doubts like: can one choose their classes after choosing a major, if yes then how much flexibility is offered in that. Also, I couldn’t find an academic calendar on their website. Now I get it, they want to be “different” from other colleges, but this is just basic information someone would need to envision their life at Minerva and make an informed decision.Their acceptance rate of 1-2% which they boast about, sounds like a huge bluff. People who don’t even complete the application process somehow receive letters of rejection. It sounds corny.Although they claim to have unlimited enrolment, it’s not possible to implement it practically. The residential buildings that they lease currently can only accommodate 300-400 people and thus they only take 300-400 people. Finding more residential spaces in 7 different countries while ensuring that they aren’t v different from each other is a huge task. Again their website lacks good information about how their accommodation is, how many people share a room, how it changes in every country.Minerva wants to stand out with active learning forums, but a lot of universities have seminars and tutorials, and various opportunities for students to directly interact with their instructors. Minerva likes to show how lectures are ineffective, which I would agree with to some extent, but it’s not the case always. Especially now that active class participation and project based learning is being encouraged more. But there’s definitely room for improvement in universities throughout the world.For some fields like Engineering, Sciences and Research, Minerva isn’t the right place. Although they encourage lab experiments during the summers, lab classes are effective when they are paired with classes related to the topics which usually happens in universities. Minerva is still in its infancy and is not recognised by employers and unless one wants to be an entrepreneur directly after Uni, the changes of finding a job especially by students who’ll have to return to their developing home countries where Minerva isn’t recognised at all would be a bit difficult.Not having a campus means not having a library(this is just personal preference lol sorry). Not having a campus has tons of cons for me. You can’t use recreational facilities for free. I read somewhere that the area outside the dorms in San Francisco wasn’t safe and usually students wouldn’t go at night alone. But in a campus, you can go out and it’d be safe in most places. You can’t work on projects in person with a professor like creating a cool robot.Minerva almost creates like a feeling of a cult for its students. Criticise Minerva on any platform, and you’ll find students defending Minerva to death. It just seems a bit fishy. Minerva tries to seem like it’s better than the Ivy Leagues which is too stretched. They’ve had only one graduating class so far.Minerva likes to talk about how it’s cheaper in comparison to other unis, but it doesn’t have to maintain the infrastructure for multiple buildings, labs, lab equipment, recreational facilities and the numerous services available in other unis. So, when you look at it in that perspective it’s not cheaper, in fact it’s just profitable. It’s a start-up, and ultimately it has to be profitable. Minerva offers financial aid in terms of loans. It cannot be subsidised like state colleges offer a lower tuition fee for their students.I personally feel like there are some practical problems with changing countries so often. You would get a visa for the duration of your semester i.e. 3-4 months. Then after that you would have to return to your home country. Finding internships in the country you stay in during your semester would be tough. And for international students who would have slightly limited possibilities in their home country, it’s a bummer. If you go to a “traditional” university abroad, you get the opportunity of doing multiple internships during your breaks on a student visa.I personally feel like Minerva sells ideas that are in some ways already implemented in other unis by making them sound extremely glamorous. For someone willing to indulge in active learning, gaining exposure and living in multiple countries: Attend a good “traditional” university, do multiple internships, if you choose one in your state you would save money; invest that money in yourself, travel during your winter or summer breaks, participate in student led clubs, and make the best out of your college experience. You’ll still gain exposure and learn a lot, and earn a more credible degree at the end of it.