Macalester College Top Questions

HARD! But worth it.

One of my classes had seven students in it last semester, which is not uncommon at Macalester. My biggest class so far has been 41 students, and that is considered huge. The professors always know your name, and are good about making themselves available and helping out. Students aren't that competitive, it is simply understood that most people at Macalester are really intelligent and enjoy learning, so there is respect but not much competititon.

At my time at Macaleser, all of my professors have known my name, and I try not to stand out in any class. Macaleser has two different type of students... on one hand there are those who study all the time and work to get their grades. on the other there are those who are smart enough to get through college without doing much of the work... while there is sometimes some friction between the two groups, frequently they get along. I have only once been asked what I got in a class or on a paper, so while students are competitive, they do not get too frustrating. I have often been invited over to professors houses and the like

Macalester is a very tight knit community and this is reflected in the academics. Professor's know your name and students have relationships with professors beyond the classes that they take--they do research together, networking, or just have coffee and talk about current events.

Small classes mean you know your profs and peers. You can always tell who the smart kids are and who applies themselves or is a total flake. I've absolutely loved some profs (Joy Laine, Jim Laine, Lin Aanonson) and hated a couple others (Eric Wiertelak, Susan Fox), just due to differences in teaching style. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to take classes outside my major (Neuroscience) such as intro to dance, religions of india, and cultures of human exhibition. Classes tend to be challenging but rewarding. I sometimes felt stunted as a scientist because the labs were so small and not as productive as labs at a large university. However, I was able to spend three years as a student worker in two neuroscience labs. This experience enabled me to secure a full-time research position upon graduation. PS. If you're considering a neuroscience major at mac you should really check out the Bio major with neurobio focus. I regret taking the path of least resistance and wish that the neuroscience major would have required more vigorous science courses. My only insecurity applying to jobs and grad school is my lack of organic chem and biochemistry. A number of my friends took O chem as a summer class somewhere else cuz its SOOO ridiculously hard at mac.

one of the best things about macalester is that it is much less competitive than many liberal arts colleges on the east coast. People set high standards for themselves, but do not base their sense of satisfaction in comparison to others. I have taken several courses where community involvement is stressed and gained the most from them. Professors often host dinners at their house once a semester and are almost always available to talk and offer guidance.

Professors make an effort to not only know students' names but get to know the people behind them. Classes are generally small and discussion-based, though this depends on the department and course. My favorite classes have been topics courses like "French Cinema and Cultural Politics", "Race, Class, and Gender in American Art" and "Imagining the American West." Perhaps the most I have learned, however, is from conversations outside of class with other students both spurred by class and not.

Classes are small and mostly discussion oriented. One of my favorite classes was a Chicana feminist class in which part of the class was volunteering at an organization, helping teach english to immigrants or helping organizations with publications in English or giving visibility to them.

Academics at Macalester are world renowned for how awesome they are. Professors make you think hard, write better, speak better, make connections you never would have made, and laugh even (that's important too!). The workload is deceptively heavy sometimes, but I think it's always worth it. I've learned so much since being here. A weirdly awesome Mac attribute is that often when you get to talking about what you're learning with your friends you'll find the methods of discourse to be similar even though you're taking different classes. You'll have some great conversations at all hours of the day (and not always about school stuff either... this is college, remember, we still laugh at farts).

I do like the small class size. Some professors seem really accessible, which is awesome, but some not as much. There are some people that spend all the time in the library and some people that seem like they never have to do work. I feel like people are much less competitive than at my high school-there it was all about GPA and class rank and how many AP classes, etc. I feel that the academic requirements, also based on major, can be challenging, but very doable.