Macalester College Top Questions

Liberal, preppy, nerdy, P.C.

That if they are not an international student they are a white midwesterner They are all non-attractive Everyone is very liberal and into the political scene It gets very cold in Minnesota You get to know everyone because the school is so small

Macalester is just a school for extrememly intelligent individuals who have no social life.

I suppose the stereotype is very liberal politically and socially and very environmentally concious. They dress hip and love small discussion groups.

Rich, White, Hippy, Yuppy, Multicultural

A few of the stereotypes are that we're full of pot-head hippies and an almost impossibly friendly LGBT community. The schools in the area around us tend to think of us as elitist snobs, while the more conservative liberal arts schools elsewhere seem to think of us as illegitimate successes. Mac is supposedly the place to go for those craving diversity and an engaging liberal student body with progressive world views; a place for quirky kids and those who want to make a real, lasting difference on some part of the world. Mac is for movers and shakers - it's a liberal arts school, and things like econ and the hard sciences aren't as important here as they are at universities. There are tons more, but I'm sure others will have covered them more adequately.

That people don't shower in order to save water. There are the "Mac Goggles," which means that while you're at Mac, since everyone is so ugly, you think someone slightly "normal" looking is cute even though if you were at an other school or around more attractive people in general, you might not think that person was very attractive. Everyone has their wordly experience, like helping build houses in Rwanda.

Treehugging potsmoking liberal freaks who wear sweatpants all the livelong day. The female stereotype is that they are ugly.

students are strange and socially awkward

Other students and the community view Macalester students as super-radical, liberal yuppies trying to change the world. Macalester has a reputation as the place where religion comes to die, where conservative people could never fit in. People also consider Mac one of the most gay-friendly communities anywhere, and consider Mac students politically active, and engaged in the community.

The only stereotype I can think of is one that all extremely liberal liberal arts colleges share. The students are crazy liberal and obsessed with political correctness.

Everything is international/internationalism based. Everyone has a "thing," a cause, like environmentalism, immigrants issues, Democratic Party... something and that becomes your identity and has major social/academic implications from day one to graduation.

Macalester is overwhelmingly liberal. Also, the Macalester administration spends a lot of time and effort talking about internationalism and global citizenship. Macalester students tend to be kids who did very well in high school without having to do very much work (which of course changes when they get to college...!)

Macalester students have the reputation of being very free minded and deeply involved in political issues. Within this reputation, Macalester students are thought of as being anti-corporate, anti-establishment advocates who can be radical at times. Macalester students are also respected for being at an intense school like Macalester.

That we are ugly, dirty hippies

We are global citizens and we rescue all the homosexuals of the world.

That everyone is completely liberal. We like to play bagpipes. We spend all of our time studying. There are no boys on campus

A lot of people are not familiar with Macalester, but some people probably believe that only wealthy kids can afford to go there. Also, partly because Macalester and various college review boards plays up the fact that there is a large international student population, I think some people perceive the student population to be more diverse than it actually is. Finally, through chanting phrases such as "Drink blood, smoke crack, worship satan, go Mac," at football games, the students have gained a reputation of being radical,atheistic, drug-abusing hippies.

That we are a all super-liberal hippies who smoke pot all the time.

we all smoke pot, are gay, vote democrat, and are ugly.