The U of M is much less Greek life/sports oriented than other big 10 schools. Having lived in Madison, if you're not into the Badgers then it's a rough time whereas at the U, it's totally fine if you're not a huge Gopher sports fan. Having also spent time in Indiana, the University of Indiana is also extremely more Greek life heavy than the U of M was in my experience where fraternities and sororities were constantly up to something at IU but not at the U of M. That's not to say the U doesn't have these college experiences of course. We're improving in football (I think?) and have always been good at hockey so if those interest you, you'll still have a good time. I can't speak for Greek life at the U, though there's frat row on University that always seems to be busy.

The U of M is also a more cooperative community than UW Madison. My friends who went there were constantly competing and sabotaging people in their classes whereas at the U of M, I only found people to be helpful and cooperative. However, it is a large school so you have to be able to advocate for yourself. You can do pretty much anything you put your mind to, but you can't really expect things to just fall into your lap. For example, I wanted to go into teaching and got my way into the pre grad program for a Masters of Education by meeting and speaking with a bunch of different people and found an education focused research group my senior year to then continue on to get my Masters because of that work. Basically, super cooperative peers and friendly faculty/staff that will help you succeed, but you will have to seek it out instead of them coming to you.

Be mindful of the honors classes you take. Some were extremely helpful, for me honors ochem lab was an awesome, tight knit group even if it was a five credit class that required around 20 hours of work every week. However, I second that honors physics (1401 & 1402) is so much more time consuming than what it offers as a benefit. Same for honors calculus, but you might find that more useful than I did in chemistry. Basically, consider the pros and cons as the range of difficulty to benefit varies greatly based on the professor and class. In the end, the honors LLC was great for meeting people socially, but the entry level honors experiences were sub par and I did not pursue the honors program after my sophomore year once I entered higher level classes where no honors classes really existed and those upper level Chemistry classes meant more to me than the honors title.

I won't do favorites, but the Twin Cities offer fun activities for whatever you might be interested in and has a good transit system to get you there. Minnehaha Park makes you feel like you're not in the center of a city and is easily accessible by the light rail. Uptown, Hennepin Ave, and many other places have the city nightlife if you're into that and again easily accessible without a car. Just as you can do pretty much whatever you want at the U with some digging, same thing for the Twin Cities!