Is Harvard more prestigious than the University of Minnesota overall?

Yes. In overall public perception, Harvard is viewed as substantially more prestigious than the University of Minnesota. Harvard has unusually strong global name recognition, is often treated as one of the most elite private universities in the world, and carries a level of selectivity and brand power that almost no schools match.

The University of Minnesota is still a highly respected major public research university, especially in the Midwest and in several academic and professional fields. But when people use the word prestige in a broad, national or international sense, Harvard is in a different tier of reputation.

That said, the more useful comparison is what kind of student each school signals best for. Harvard tends to carry the strongest prestige for students who care about broad name recognition across industries, elite graduate school pipelines, and a campus environment shaped by very high selectivity and dense concentrations of academic ambition.

Minnesota makes more sense for students who want a large public university with serious research activity, wider program variety, strong ties to the Twin Cities, and solid respect from employers without the same emphasis on status symbolism. In some areas, especially certain STEM, health, and public-facing disciplines, Minnesota can be excellent and very well known.

So if the question is strictly overall prestige, Harvard is clearly ahead. If the question is whether Minnesota is still academically strong and well regarded, the answer is also yes, just in a different way and at a different level of name recognition.