Macalester College Top Questions

Diverse, friendly, talkative, and helpful.

Macalester's student body is one of its major selling points, and it highlights the diversity on campus as well as the high percentage of international students. Both of these are definitely noticeable, but there tend to be some divides among students. While there is no real racial split, international students tend to move in their own social circle to some extent, because they arrive around a week earlier than everyone else and go through their own international student orientation. Everything tends to break down and become more varied by the end of the year, but there is a definite grouping of international students. Because Macalester is so liberal, it can be difficult to be a conservative on campus. There is a college republicans group on campus which works to raise awareness, but they are fighting a losing battle against an overwhelming majority of liberal students. Generally there is no outright discrimination against conservatives, but when considering policy the general choice is between liberal and less-liberal, and conservatives have to work to make their voices heard. If you are a conservative, come prepared to both learn alternative views and defend the views you maintain. Intellectually, Macalester's student body is both incredibly intelligent and laid-back. There are very, very few stupid people here, and a good quantity of outright geniuses. However, there isn't much (or any) academic competition, and most students tend not to stress too hard about school in general. Everyone has an issue and cares about the world, but these issues tend to override the importance of actual schoolwork.

I think a conservative student might feel out of place at Mac, although there are a certain number on campus. There a wide variety of racial, relgious and socio-economic backgrounds. I don't see the international and domestic students interacting very much at all in social circles. I think students are very politically aware and politically active, with people from the very far left to the center.

Macalester is far from a 'regional' school- students from many walks of life and all over the world end up here. Its institutional commitments to multi-culturalism and internationalism put it miles above many in terms of diversity and inclusiveness, but there are still complaints to be had. Students tend to hang out with people similar to them, creating three distinct separations- international students, white domestic students, and domestic students of color. Students are left-leaning and somewhat radical. There might be 7 Republicans on campus, and they are all probably on the football team. Macalester students are socially awkward kids who dress weird, have strange inside jokes, and were probably not traditionally 'popular' in high school And we take that as a compliment! Socialites and sorority girl/frat boy types might find Macalester a miserable place while us nerds are perfectly happy in our little utopia of social awkwardness. Though it breeds a very high level of sexual frustration as many of us are too socially awkward to date successfully! Macalester's financial aid is really good for a $40,000/year school. Most pay nothing close to that, so you get a really good school with some actual diversity in terms of social class. My group of friends consist of some people who's parents write the astronomical check each year, and others who are on full federal and Macalester grants because they have no money at all. It really varies and rarely comes up.

Macalester is WAY diverse with many students from all over the world. There are also many student organizations that allow students to learn more about each other and other cultures.

Republicans might feel a little out of place at Macalester because very few students are openly conservative. There isn't really a dress code at Macalester. There are plenty of hip stylish kids but then there are a lot of people that do not care at all what they wear, and then there are the few eccentric weird kids who wear pirate hats or what have you. There is not much domestic diversity, not many African Americans. Most black students are from Africa or Jamaica. There are international students, but they definitely stick to their own groups. Most Macalester students are from . . . . Well I'd say maybe 1/4 is from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Then 1/4 is from other countries. 1/4 from east coast, 1/4 from west coast. That is really rough and probably inaccurate. It seems like the majority of Macalester students are from wealthy backgrounds, this is kind of true, but not everyone there comes from money. It was never a problem or an issue at all while I was there. Most students are liberal. The student body is not as radical as it could be, a lot of Democrats, social reform etc. There is a small but strong group of active radicals. They give Mac a more radical face than it deserves. Students do not talk much about how much they'll earn one day, most people i know think they'll be poor.

A really well-rounded group of individuals, from many different backgrounds. Lots of international kids. Generally pretty left leaning, but open to discuss. Actually, dying to discuss. All the time. People at Mac also don´t really think about the outside world and future careers, or how much money they´ll make. The atmosphere is just competitive enough, and everyone really wants to help their colleagues out. The kind of student that would be out of place at Mac arre blonde, Hollister girls with their parents money who just wanna party. That doesn´t fly. Anything else is cool.

Macalester students tend to have a certian attitude and think highly of themselves simply because we go to Macalester. It is almost a pretentiousness, but not quite. But, there is extensive LGBTQ diversity (Mac was voted the #1 most accepting of the queer community), and a decent amount of racial and religious diversity, with a lot of that being international students. I have found little socio-economic diveristy at Mac, which is frustrating at times. There are very few cliques, some of the sports teams come close, but other than that there's not really any. One of the things I love is that clothing doesn't matter, and it is not unusual to see someone wearing bright purple and green striped spandex pants with a lepeord print shirt, and no one bats an eyelid. There are fads here, but they are different than the usual Northface, Uggs, and Abercrombie and Fitch fads. They are American Apperal, kafias, and Patagonia. The same is true of music. Most of the students here were the strange, alternative-types in highschool, so now a college filled with them brings out certian trends.

Macalester is a very liberal college, which does not tolerate intolerant people. Athletes would feel out of place at macalester if for no other reason then the athletics are pretty terrible. there is not a huge minority population either, but macalester tries to componsate by having a larger then normal international population.

The student body is very diverse. Lots of international students and students of color.