Macalester College Top Questions

Exaggerated internationalism. Incredible professors available. Students' passion to learn overrated in college brochures -- many are as indifferent about education as students in other undergraduate schools, like the Ivy Leagues (as surprising as that may sound...IVY LEAGUES? INDIFFERENT to education? Sad but true) But some incredible students available. Great food. Great. Smallness gets claustrophobic, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It's intimate and personal and memorable. It's nice to know that after leaving this place I will have remembered every corner, as familiar as home, because it's just that small. Great location. I like the availability of many homosexuals. It's a new experience. But one must always be aware that America is not such a liberal, gay-crazy bubble like Macalester.

The campus is small and familiar. It is extremely easy to navigate the buildings and find your classroom. When I tell people I go to Macalester, they usually don't know what it is, unless they are from the area. If they do know the school, they are usually impressed. The administration is alright, could use some work. There are mixed feelings about the president, Brian Rosenberg. The twin cities have great public transportation which makes going to college without a car very simple. The athletics are not great, but we are just finishing our new 41 million dollar recreation center, which will be nice.

Macalester is foremost a rigorous academic institution. No matter your major - chemistry or economics or anthropology or Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies or dance, you are going to work hard and learn how to be an active, engaged citizen. Mac is politically active and tends to be liberal, though not to the exclusion of people with other political/social leanings. Mac is a very ethnically diverse campus - we have students from some 80 countries, and our multitude of student organizations ensures that everyone has a smaller group and community. Despite this, after a year or two, the community can feel small. I don't know every single student's name, but I recognize about 90{4a082faed443b016e84c6ea63012b481c58f64867aa2dc62fff66e22ad7dff6c} of the faces. However, Mac is smack-dab in the middle of St. Paul, and the Twin Cities community provides lots of off-campus people, activities and culture. The administration is great at empowering student initiatives, and lately has been a big part of Mac's climate crisis movement. The student body is working en masse on a global scale to address global warming, and has made some amazing strides already. Initiatives include going carbon-neutral on campus, engaging the surrounding community in the same thing and starting a global, grassroots movement for a new-energy economy. A frequent complaint I hear from the straight women is that there aren't many eligible, straight men. I dispute that argument.

I absolutely love Macalester. It has been the perfect match for me. A couple of its qualities bother me, however. One concerns the international students, of which Macalester is largely composed. They tend to be incredibly cliquish according to what area of the world they're from. This makes it hard for domestic and international students to interact on a regular basis, but there are several people, both domestic and international, who completely ignore these cliques and cross boundaries. The other complaint is the dating scene. For some reason, it is very weak or absent, altogether. There seems to be some inhibitions that Mac students have about approaching each other in a suggestive way, and I don't know why. I love the setting that Macalester is in. Saint Paul has a very neighborhoody feel, while still maintaining some minor resemblance to a city. This makes it easy to feel at ease, while also allowing you to explore and discover new places. Most students are happy to be here, but they're not very quick to express it. Most of the conversation concerning Macalester involves a complaint in some form or another, whether it be social life, financial aid, or the food.

The best thing about Macalester is its size. It embraces being a small liberal arts college in so many ways. Class sizes are remarkably small, and are ALWAYS taught by professors (or visiting lecturers). Professors are accessible, to the point of inviting students to their homes for dinner, which is something I always thought was just a stereotypical college guidebook comment. The campus is a manageable size, and though it's in a city is in a quiet residential neighborhood, so it's really the best of both worlds. Even better, and something I did not anticipate, is the way the school almost seamlessly blends into the neighborhood, in the sense that surrounding area is full of students, alumni, faculty, and people who are just generally friendly towards the school and the people who go there. When I tell people where I go to school, most of the comments I get are about how cold the winters must be. They are. But for me, that was fairly irrelevant - I bought a winter coat and kept going. The administration, to the best of my knowledge, is fairly tame. They make themselves very visible, which is good...but they also seem to beat the dead horse about their favorite brochure phrase, "global citizenship". To their credit, the campus is legitimately diverse in terms of having students from around the world, especially since it's a small school in the midwest. Something unique about Macalester is the "Veggie Co-op" - quite literally an on-campus group of vegetarians and vegans who live in converted loft-style rooms under the stadium and share a kitchen where they cook meals together. They throw the best Halloween party every year, make delicious food, and are generally an interesting group of people. You have to apply to live there, but from what I hear, its way worth it.

The best thing about Macalester is its commitment to being part of a global community. To fulfill that commitment, the school makes a great effort to attract international students as well as making study abroad opportunities very accessible to its domestic students. Furthermore, many of the classes have an international aspect built in which is furthered by the diverse students sitting in the classroom. The school also invited globally minded guests to campus to keep its students informed about the broader world.

Macalester is a great place. The size is one of my favorite things about it, although at times it does feel a little too small. I spend most of my time outside when its warm. When it gets cold out, I pretty much stay inside. St Paul is a great place to go to school. It is easy to get around with plenty of stuff to do. The hardest part is breaking out of the 'Macalester Bubble'. School Pride is different at Macalester. The student body takes pride in being one of the best liberal arts schools in the country. In terms of athletics, there is little interest outside of soccer. Personally, I am a big fan of the football team which has a small, devoted following. As the team gets better, I expect the following to increase.

The teachers at Macalester deserve to live in heaven. They respect and help their students as they would to their children. THe one thing I would chamge-abolish Queer Cabaree even though it is incredibly hilarious. Most of the time in campus, I walk in all corners of the campus and then I again walk all corners of the campus.

Ok, the best thing about Macalester is the food. Most students will tell you that college cafeteria food sucks. Well, Macalester is not so bad. We have fruit and a plethera of vegan/vegetarian foods (they're even labeled!!!). The dorms are a little bad your first 2 years (especially dupre or as the students call it duprojects) but they aren't that bad. Only thing I might change is the weather. It does get cold in Saint Paul. But the snow is pretty!!!!

While Macalester, like any school, has its flaws, overall I feel it has allowed me to meet a ton of amazing people of different backgrounds, personalities, and personal beliefs. To me, Macalester is full of caring people who legitimately want to make a positive change in the world. While there are a lot of people who party on the weekends, most people still care about their grades at least to some degree and are open to learning about other people's different ideas and cultures. I really valued my first year at Macalester, because it learned me to appreciate my background. When I first got to Macalester, I had an eye-opening experience. While listening to every individual in a circle of new people name off their places of origin, I realized how many people were either from a different country or had spent their lives hopping from place to place. I felt that, being a life-long resident of Kansas, I was somehow less important or interesting than those other people. However, as the year progressed, I learned that living in dozens of places does not necessarily make a person more knowledgeable or open-minded. A lot of international students or people I knew who had traveled a lot still displayed prejudices and intolerance. I learned that it is a person's willingness to learn about others, regardless of their external surroundings, that makes them wise and will allow him or her to learn more in the long-run.