<p>I have a question for students, alumnae, and parents:</p>
<p>What are the best and worst aspects of living and learning at Macalester?</p>
<p>I graduated from Macalester a few years back.</p>
<p>Best parts:</p>
<p>The student body: arty, weird, funny, smart, political and cool.
The soccer games: learn the chants, sing along with 1000 of your best friends.
the twin cities: explore, explore, explore!
Academic rigor/flexibility: it is what you make of it. some kids coast through the four years barely lifting a finger or opening a book. other kids spend 50 hours a week in the library and go on to Harvard Med School or Yale Law. I was somewhere in between. Most of us are but I still ended up in a top 5 grad program.
Grad school: people really respect Macalester as an institution that educates its students well.
International students: meet people from all over the world and country
Minnesota: fantastic place that I never would have appreciated had I not decided to go to Mac for college
Size: I loved the size. It’s like Cheers but the college.
Neighborhood: Mac Groveland has tons of coffee shops and restaurants but maintains the feeling of a leafy small town. </p>
<p>Worst parts:</p>
<p>Winter (its brutal). You’ll survive but when winter stretches into April you’ll be wondering why you didn’t go to Pomona or Emory. </p>
<p>Clearly, I loved it. Not all of my friends felt the same way but it was the best decision I ever made.</p>