Macalester College Top Questions

Classes are small. Unless you are in the rare large introductory lecture, students and professors will likely notice if you aren't there. Professors may invite you over for dinner or to the bar. Chatting with them in the halls or outside of classes is very common. Some students can be quite competitive, depending on the department. More often, students are just determined to do well and make a change (which can cause a lot of stress, especially around finals). I was expecting a more laid back attitude towards academics, where learning is more important than performance, but it seems Macalester is increasingly becoming more "professionally focused". Either way, Macalester students are known for being very outspoken and argumentative (in a good way, usually). I've taken philosophy, biology, sociology, geography, art, political science, chemistry, environmental studies, french, international studies, and math classes at Mac, while still having time to graduate with a major and two minors. Double majors are actually quite normal. My biology department seems to train people to become academics; I considered going on to graduate school before realizing academia isn't for me. Macalester is primarily a teaching school (with a comparatively large amount of research for a liberal arts school), so that is so bed expected You can take other classes at the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC) schools in the area.

Small classes with caring professors make Macalester a place of deep learning. On top of my professors who are excellent educators, my classmates are brilliant. I need not be in class in order to have intellectually enriching conversations, because my peers and I initiate them either way. Professors are genuinely interested in my life and are invested in my success. Because of this, academics here at Macalester are singularly rigorous; professors here know we are capable of great things and push us accordingly.

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Professors usually know your name by the end of the first week and class participation is expected. Students are genuinely excited to be here and committed to the material, which is reflected by many late night intellectual conversations. There's no getting around it, Macalester students spend the vast majority of their time with their nose in a book. However, were never cut throat. I'm a Biology major and geography minor. As a premed, I was concerned that the competitive coursework would bring out the worst in my piers. Fortunately, students want to see their piers succeed and you often make friends with others in the class. This goes for your professor as well, it is common for professors to have their entire class over for dinner.

At Macalester, many of the classes take Oxford-style learning approaches with lots of student participation. Also, professors are always accessible. My Japanese instructor had the whole class over for sushi and wii, TWICE! Although many Mac students may not think too hard about post-graduation job opportunities, the resources are there. I'm not even an econ major and the econ department always sends me emails of internship opportunities! The physics department here is small, but great. I'll hopefully be able to start doing undergraduate research after my sophomore year, which is an advantage over larger universities (for the most part). Intro physics the class size was 22, which is impressive considering how many people want to take the class.

The academic life is intense, and that is definitely the priority on campus, but there are plenty of ways that students balance study and fun. Everyone here participates in and outside the classroom which is a huge indicator of the activeness of the students and faculty.

Top-notch: is in second tier in midwest schools (after UChicago, Northwestern, WashU, Notre Dame)

Macalester's classes are small and so this facilitates good teacher-professor relations. Students tend not to compete with each other because we all know that we had to be among the best to be at Mac anyway. The academi standards are very high at Mac and good grades dont come easy.

The academics at Macalester are fabulous. Professors are really enthusasitic and eager to build relationships with students and facilitate interesting discussion in class. The work load is fairly heavy and most students are fairly academically focused but if you do the work and go to class it is definitley managable.

Gotta pick and choose your classes carefully. Not too much deviation between classes for a major. You basically have to take all the classes to be that major. Competitiveness is really between the big majors, like Econ or Chem

Profs always know your name. Always. Even in the big lecture classes like General Chem - they will know who you are. My favorite class has been with Professor Raymond Robertson, International Economics. It was just brilliant - I learned so much and usually looked forward to class because the prof did; he is one of those guys that just really, really loves his job and it shows in the quality of his teaching. My least favorite has been the introductory philosophy course - the lectures were just boring and our prof hardly ever engaged us with the material, though I'm told it was just her. Study habits vary by individual, but generally, if you don't study, your grade will show it. So - study. People are usually passionate about the classes they take, so there's a lot of intellectual discussion outside of class, but it's fairly easy to sidestep that and move on to what's going on this weekend if you need a break. The only department in which I've seen actual competition is in econ, and that's a very select few types of people that will be competitive no matter where you put them. The coolest class I've taken has been International Human Right with Professor James von Geldern. Amazing class, amazing prof - the legalese of the course is easily accessible through him, and you get a great grasp of recent and current HR issues. I'm a double major, econ and poli sci - the department are very different. I've found Poli Sci the more welcoming of the two, but Econ is geared much more toward students who will be in the accounting side of things once they graduate (which I will not be) and many have found it warm as well. You see more Poli Sci profs with their doors open than Econ ones though, with a few exceptions. The students in both tend to be similar as well - PS are social-welfare minded, while econ tend to be the type to check the stock indices every hour. Mac has recently expanded its grad requirements and I don't like them, flat out. I think there are too many "distribution requirements," so many that many incoming students who end up screwing around their first semester (which is most of us) will end up being unable to take the classes they want because they have to fulfill requirements. As a liberal arts college, I respect that we have general requirements, but I think some are just unnecessary; if the college insists on mandating so many, the least they can do is make it easier for us to transfer credits in from classes we take over the summer or winter, or they could open up summer sessions for non-physics students so we could get to things we like instead of scraping by with what we have to do. It's especially hard for science and double majors.

It is hard work, but definitely doable. It's nice that teachers mostly know you're name and I have taken advantage of going to see teachers during their office hours way more than I was expecting myself to. They are very nice and friendly here. I haven't found that students are competitive at all-- only one person has asked me what grades I've gotten. Education is geared toward learning for its own sake, but then making a difference with the information you've just learned. Joining orgs or doing field work during J-term or the summer is encouraged.

Very good. Some bullshit courses & professors, like anywhere else, but generally, very good.

I am a hardcore science nerd so I spend all my time in the science building, Olin-Rice. I am a Neurobiology major with a Psychology minor, which is the largest major the school offers. The workload is extremely heavy, but manageable if you are willing to study hard. I have yet to take a class I didn't like or find a professor I didn't think belonged at the school.

Academics at Mac are quite rigorous. Your professors and peers will expect your best from your first week on campus. However, the academic environment is NOT cutthroat. Students often work together outside of class, and there is relatively little competition. I would not be as successful as I am without the help of my friends and classmates. Students do a lot of homework here, though it certainly varies by department. Chemistry, biology and econ students frequently spend six or seven hours a day studying, while dance and english majors probably spend far less. The econ department is very rigorous, with low test scores and heavy curves. But the students all help and support each other, and some of the professors are truly amazing. Classes are very small - often 10 to 20 students - and professors always learn names. They encourage out-of-class meetings and some professors frequently respond to student emails at 11pm within two minutes of receiving the message. I have great relationships with my professors outside of classroom settings, and I know that these relationships have enhanced my academic experience. Professors very much care about student success - they will often spend far more time than is necessary outside of class ensuring that success. Every discipline emphasizes critical thinking, cultural and social knowledge, and global citizenship. Academics are geared towards preparing Mac students to be world leaders and changers - It is no coincidence that Kofi Annan is a Mac alum. If you are not prepared to critically analyze and question the current social/political/economic status quo, don't come to Mac.

Since most classes are small enough, professors usually have no problem learning and remembering your name. One of my favorite classes was an introductory acting class. I acted in high school, so I have a love for theater. The acting class was incredibly fun, because all it is playing, but it also challenged me to be better and helped me realize that there's always room for improvement. My least favorite class was an introductory Asian history class. It was on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which meant the class was an hour and a half long. The professor was incredibly dry, and often seemed to be a bit confused about where he wanted to lead the class. It was unbearable to sit through that class and attempt to learn something. The Geology Department and Macalester is very prestigious. With five professors, it is small, but most of the professors are incredibly effective teachers. Only one seems to have trouble with helping students learn. The rest know how to motivate and challenge students. The department is also incredibly cohesive and intimate. Students address the professors by their first names, there is a lot of professor/student interaction outside of class, especially when it isn't crucial to the learning process. Not only are the professors teachers and advisors, but they're close friends. Outside of class, students very often engage in intellectual conversations. Some might argue that it is the leading cause of procrastination. Depending on who you're talking to, you can gain wonderful insight from another's views and and knowledge. It plays a very important role in the learning and social process.

Excellent. Academics are excellent. Professors are excellent, know students' names, work with students, facilitate great class discussion (Mac students like to participate!), often invite students to do research with them. The quality of academic life is very high and the number of students really taking advantage of it is striking. I cant say enough nice things. My only two reservations are as follows: Students are pretentious often but so are professors - it is sort of the nature of the academy and academia... you are sitting in a room dissecting and criticizing the world. That is sort of pretentious to begin with and students hop on the professor bandwagon of using absurd terms that they don't know the meaning of but generally, the students are intellectual powerhouses - even the ones that occasionally succumb to sesquipadalian verbiage, so to speak. My only really concern with Macalester is one that I sense as an emerging trend among liberal arts schools: students and professors are forgetting the roots and often ideals of liberal arts education (to create freedom of the mind) and becoming too fixed in their disciplinary/departmental studies and pursuits, unable to see the value of cross-collaboration. I think this is mostly a problem with professors but I see it manifesting itself in the student body.

With the exception of a few absentminded professors, every class I've ever been in the professor has known my name. Lectures are never bigger than 60 students, and if they are, they aren't really taught as lectures - small group discussion, and opportunities for class interaction with the professor is constantly provided. Macalester in general has a good way of melding the intellectual with the social, and I would say that students find ways to have intellectual conversations in contexts that don't make them seem nerdy - discussions about current events abound, as do those about more heated class discussions. My favorite class was my first year course, People & the Environment, an anthropology class about environmentalism. It was specific without being obscure, the professor assigned large amounts of reading but was always quick to explain his opinions and ask for ours, and the size of the class allowed for almost constant discussion of issues both in what we read or learned, and in current events. The professor invited the class to his home for a lunch of authentic Sri Lankan food, which he cooked himself. The size of the school does mean that some departments end up being smaller than others. However, this in my experience has NOT deterred from the quality of the classes, nor the breadth of topics that are taught each semester. Sure, at a school of 40,000 you might have 50 times the amount of classes to choose from, but somehow each semester when scheduling comes around, I manage to be incredibly conflicted about what to take. Certain majors seem to lend themselves to being more "workplace friendly" (economics, computer science, etc) but the emphasis is on learning for it's own sake, which I find slightly idealistic, but also am very appreciative of. The school makes up for it with its HUGE career development center, which arranges a litany of internships (which can count for credit, work study, or neither).

The academics at Macalester are very rigorous but the students are definitely supported in the challenge by the professors. In many of the social sciences there is not much emphasis on quantitative thinking which is unfortunate. The material is always current and the professors come from very strong backgrounds.

Professors here are great. I am on a first name basis with nearly every professor I've had and they really make an effort to get to know you as a person. There is some competition academically between students, but not nearly to the degree that I have heard my friends talk about at their schools. The Geography Dept at Macalester is top-notch. We have the best faculty, most fun students, its generally a good time. It is a very relaxed environment which comes from a genuine interest in Geography by staff and students alike.