Macalester College Top Questions

This stereotype is mostly accurate, with some outliers who bring a more moderate or conservative view to the environment.

Those two stereotypes are self-fulfilling prophecies but they don't have to be. There are tons of amazing domestic students of diversity... and just plain amazing domestic students... and even internationals that are focused as much or more on the local scale but you do have to know where to find them and they can often sort of fall by the administrative way-side as groups. The ones getting attention for not conventionally "international" stuff tend to be individuals and tend to be individuals who really know how to advocate for themselves and their causes whereas the more "internationally" focused seem to have more of an infrastructure of support - social, monetary, institutional, academic... everything. As for having a cause to champion, plenty of people come into one after a year or two but by the time you are a late sophomore, definitely by the time you are a junior, you are probably branded as "that kid who promotes *fill in the blank*"

For the most part, yes. The school is very, very, very liberal. Currently, I would guess that 98{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of students have succumbed to Obama-mania. This leaves those farther left and farther right feeling a bit ostracized, but being in a large city generally negates that.

There is definitely a population that fits the stereotype but I mostly found the student body to be made up of rich kids who declare their liberal loyalties but end up being quite closed minded and unwilling to acknowledge viewpoints other than their own as having any legitimacy.

Somewhat

yes.

Most are not really true. We do have boys on campus and do other things besides study. There are some differences of opinion on campus and we do have a republican club. Bagpipes though, are a past time but most people don't play them (except at special events!!!!)

While it is true that an education at Macalester is primarily made available to wealthy kids and the college emphasizes travel and multiculturalism in the admissions process, they do actually offer quite a bit of financial aid to students who need it and make a legitimate effort to make domestic students feel just as welcome as international ones. As for the diversity stereotype, while the international student population is definitely noticeable and a huge part of life at Macalester, there is still a huge popualation of white, middle class kids. Additionally, like I said earlier, a high socioeconomic status seems to be a common denominator amongst Mac students. The drug and alcohol scene at Macalester is a lot more tame than students, and sometimes the college itself, attempt to make it out to be. While a lot of students do abuse drugs and alcohol, I'd say that the level of substance abuse is just as much of a problem at most other colleges.

Nope, we have just as many pot smokers as the next college. We also have conservative people on campus. They are admittedly few, but they are present. Instead considering the student body super-liberal, I consider it super active. People are always involved in some kind of action or process which means something to them.

some people smoke pot (less than 30{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c}), some are gay (yay!), but not all, many vote democrat, and a few are ugly--but not more than is usual.