The U of M is a great school. So is WUSTL. Ironically, I've heard the same derogatory comments about both that neither one places as well nationally as their rankings would indicate.
If you run the table at Minnesota and make connections, you can get an NLJ 250 job in Chicago. While not totally analogous, a good friend of mine aced his first year at Minnesota and ended up transferring to Harvard. He's graduating Order of the Coif this spring.