Macalester College Top Questions

People here need to know what they stand for and what they believe in. That is a way of succeeding. Yet you meet many interesting and fun people, from different countries, backgrounds and with different ideas. There is always the chance of getting to know somebody everyday.

Like I mentioned before, everyone is very open-minded and accepting of all types of people - we have a very active LGBT group on campus and very present multi-cultural club. We have people from all over the country and all over the world - it's really amazing, actually. I've never been on a campus that has as many culturally diverse students as Mac. Everyone pretty much mixes well together - there is a noticeable difference between the international students and the domestic students, but it is not hostile or anything like that...mostly it has to do with the way everyone is oriented in their first year (we have different orientations...something I, and many other students, feel is somewhat detrimental to meeting and mixing with people from other parts of the world). Students are VERY politically active and aware, often organizing protests, rallies, and boycotts for whatever cause they support; since the War on Terror started, there have been annual (maybe bi-annual...obviously I'm one of the slacker students) events around school protesting the war (and don't even get us started on Bush...). As a result, there is a lot of emphasis on voting; as you can probably guess a lot of stuff has been going down regarding the upcoming election (unfortunately, I'm not able to observe any of the goings-on, as I am currently on my study abroad term). One thing that is regrettable is that, because of the enormous amount of cash it takes to go to Mac, I think it is hard for someone without financial security to come to here...that's not to say that everyone is rich because some of us get kick-ass financial aid, without which we wouldn't be able to attend, but it's more often than not that a student or her/his family is well-off.

Mac is extremely diverse. The only people who may feel out of place are those who do not seek to gain deeper understanding of themselves and their surroundings.

Macalester's student body is more left than center, but in other ways much more center than left. There is a middle-of-the-road-ness to Macalester's student body that sometimes I appreciate and sometimes drives me absolutely nuts. As diverse as the student body is, there is a sameness among the student body that is hard to put one's finger on. I think it comes from the campus being small, the student body being small, and the community being somewhat close-knit. Logically, there is some homogenization-- even in an "international school" -- that occurs as a result of a community being small and its members having lots of contact with one another. I imagine the "sameness" I'm trying to describe can be found in any small college.

Though most of the campus is extremely liberal, most anybody is able to find and make strong friendships while at school. There are many different types of people found at Macalester. People are always able to find someone else that shares similar qualities with them. Along with this, people are also able to meet many different people when it comes to personal belief and even home country.

One of Macalester's big issues is the race thing. Domestic students (and faculty) of color are highly under-represented, and while it's definitely a very diverse student body internationally speaking, the administration still has a long way to go in recruiting American students of color and building up their representation on campus. Mac also has a rep as being pretty irreligious, but I would say that's pretty inaccurate. I know Protestants, Catholics, evangelicals, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Unitarian Universalists, the list goes on and on, and everyone gets the same amount of respect. The LGBT community is pretty strong, it's a super-welcoming campus and there are a good number of students who openly and proudly self-identify as gay, lesbian, or bi. The socio-economic diversity at Mac really impresses me, because 75{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the student body is on work study. We're a very middle-class school, there are lots of rich kids and tons of private school graduates, but there are also children of single moms who worked in factories to pay for their kid's education. You can dress whoever you want at Mac, there are lots of cute little hipsters, some super-chique art kids, slackers in pjs and the sporty kids in their Macalester gear. There are some serious distinctions between social groups, however, and you canr eally see the differences in the dining hall. There's the football players' table, the Afro-Caribbean students' table, the international supermodel table, the oddball table of kids who all seem like characters from a goofy comic book... but after freshman year, most of the different groups at Mac start interacting and intermixing, so by senior year everyone is more or less speaking to everyone else. The big geographic contingencies are Minnesota, the Midwest, the Northeast, and the Northwest, and our international population is strong, proud, and really visible on campus.

Macalester students are fairly open-minded and willing to listen to most opinions. However, if you are conservative, it would probably be hard to express your opinions on campus. Also, while many of the students are atheists, and the majority don't really believe in organized religion, there are plenty of religious students on campus. There is a chapel that has Christian services, and there are religious student orgs on campus that hold their own services. (There is an open Shabbat every Friday night in the Hebrew House on campus). Many students are politically active. There are almost always students handing out flyers in front of the Campus Center at lunch, at there are usually petitions to sign in the basement of the Camus Center (save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, encourage our congressmen/women to provide more funding to the MN State scholarship fund...) Most Mac students are not at college to be trained for a specific job - we are at Mac to learn, and we'll figure out what we want to do for the rest of our lives sometime during college.

The student body is extremely diverse. Anything you want at Mac, you'll get it. What I feel however that is not very diverse are political opinions. Most people are Democrats, and there are only very few republicans. There is never any tension between them, but there might be some joking. What do most students wear to class? Whatever they find first.. or so it sometimes seems. There are some people who take a little more time getting dressed, but in general, people never go all out just to go for class. Dressing well is something many Mac kids don't know how to do. At Mac, there's a lot of students from the Mid west and the East Coast. There are also huge numbers of international students, which even though if sometimes tend to just stick to themselves in the beggining, by the end of first year, have already begun to mix with domestics. Financial backgrounds among students are quite varied, but it's hard to tell because people don't show their backgrounds, especially if they come from wealthy familys. Students are extremely active and very politically aware. At Mac, you'll find a lot of people, who care to make a difference, and actually make one.

there is a big emphasis on diversity especially international diversity so there are students from all over the world. Freshman year they tend to stick together a bit but I have tons of friends from around the world and we all intermingle quite a bit. As far as different sexual orientations they are all very welcome- we're an extremely open and liberal campus.

Don't believe in the whole internationalism specheel they'll give you. The student body is divided between international and domestic, and your social life will depend on which group you will be a part of. International student seem to be the ones who party the hardest, and just know how to spend their time well. But they don't take outsiders either, so if you are international you're lucky. if domestic, expect a rather boring social life, if any. oh no, i'm not saying you will not have any social life, you'll make friends, meet wonderful people. Just don't expect to have friends from all over the world, you will have aquaintanences from all over the world, but not friends.