A VPN is recommended under certain circumstances (e.g., connecting to the University network from public WiFi services, such as those offered at coffee shops)...
When connected to off-campus wifi always use Full-Tunnel for secure applications (such as PeopleSoft). A VPN is required to connect to certain applications when you are not on campus. To see whether an application requires VPN, refer to this list of UMN Applications and VPN requirements. You will need to sign in...
Most University applications, such as MyU, University Gmail, the G Suite, Office 365, umn.edu web pages, Canvas, and others, do not require a VPN.