Choosing between Macalester, Grinnell & Carleton

College Search & Selection
1

My son has narrowed his search down to these 3 colleges and has visited all 3. He has attended a very rigorous high school in a large city and has done very well academically. But frankly, he is doing schoolwork all the time and gets only 6 hours sleep/nt and seems burnt out. He is a bit of a quirky introvert and is looking for a college that will be challenging, but also provide balance for personal/emotional growth. He liked Carleton, but is concerned that the trimester system and very rigorous academics could set him up for a similar experience to his high school years - too much stress, too little sleep, not enough fun/social time.

Does anyone have any thoughts about the work/life balance differences in the 3 schools he is considering? Many thanks in advance.

2

My Dd was also accepted to Grinnell and Carleton (we did not pursue Macalester because of it’s urban location).

We visited both, and we have friends who’s child recently graduated from Grinnell. Our DD is also smart and introverted and quirky and burnt out of studying.

Did he get a vibe on his visits? Did he do an overnight?

Grinnell and Carleton seemed to be for kids who THRIVE on academic pressure. While we appreciate academic challenge, not for the sake of everything else. My DD was not a work hard play hard (which tends to be loosely interpreted as a lot of drinking). Our Carleton tour guide mentioned the academic intensity so many times during our tour we were beginning to wonder if this was a good fit or not. We chose elsewhere.

3

Congrats to your son for having 3 great choices. My son was accepted to Macalester and Grinnell and choose not to apply to Carleton partly because he did not need another reach and he was concerned about the trimester system.

He is finishing up his 1st year at Grinnell. He has more of a social life then in high school (including the Pun Club, talk about quirky). He has balanced an on campus job (6 - 10 hrs a wk), social life, challenging classes and still manages to get 8 hrs of sleep most nights and good grades. He was a strong writer coming in, but has improved a lot in just this year. The 1st semester tutorial was very helpful in preparing the students. He met regally with the teacher who gave lots of feed back on papers and the prof will continue to advise him until he declares a major next year. He writes a lot of papers, but all of the professors have been clear in their expectations and are very available to review and guide him.

4

He did do overnights at all 3 schools, but some students were stressed out and others having fun & balanced at all 3 schools so how to judge? Carleton students seem to work hard, but are really into what they are working on and the faculty seems to offer lots of support when asked. Curious - where did your DD wind up going?

Son liked Grinnell, but he has lived his entire life in a big city with lots of culture,etc and is concerned he might find Grinnell a bit small and boring after a bit.

Your feedback is much appreciated.

5

As others have said: what great choices to have! I know people who have been happy at all three. I don’t really think they are that different in terms of rigor and stress, although Carleton’s trimester system may add to that a bit because the classes are more compressed time-wise. I can, however, respond to your last point about Grinnell and its small size. My son is finishing his first year there and also grew up in a big city. He sounds a lot like your son, particularly that “quirky introvert” part. He is happier at Grinnell than we could have imagined. He takes advantage of what Grinnell brings onto campus more than he ever did growing up in a thriving urban environment–perhaps because it is right there, it is free, and the friends around him are going. Work is quite hard, but he is finding time to explore new and different things and I don;t think has been bored for a moment–city or no city.

6

My oldest daughter went to Carleton and my son went to Grinnell. Both had wonderful experiences. If your son attended a very rigorous high school and has excelled academically, then he will do fine at either place. The professors at both schools really want their students to succeed and there is a great deal of support available, if needed.

Looking at the experiences of my two children, I would say that the Carleton academic scene, if not exactly harder, was more exhausting than Grinnell’s. There never seemed to be enough time to accomplish all that needed to be done, which could be due in part to the trimester system. Grinnell’s pace was just a beat slower and the First-Year Tutorial was a really enjoyable way of easing into first semester. As for the location, we are city people and neither of my children ever complained about their respective rural campuses. They found plenty of ways to amuse themselves. Also, since they had the city to go home to on breaks (and eventually, permanently), they rather enjoyed their quiet campus bubbles.

I don’t have any first-hand experience with Macalester (except for a tour), but my middle daughter goes to college down the street at St. Thomas and really loves the area. She is very high energy and likes to be regularly out and about in the bustle of crowds and night life, so the Twin Cities was a good choice for her.

Since your son is faced with three great possibilities, it comes down to that elusive “fit.” My youngest was just accepted to both Carleton and Grinnell, but has decided to go to Beloit instead. She is a bit of a free spirit and thought that the students at Carleton were “too normal.” So I guess there’s quirky…and really quirky. It’s all a matter of degree. :slight_smile: Good luck to your son and do let us know what he decides. I’m sure he’ll have a terrific four years, no matter which school he chooses.

7

Any particular areas of academic interest that might help differentiate them? I have tremendous respect for all three, by the way.

8

All three are great choices, so at least you can be content that he’s going to go wrong, no matter what he chooses. I presume finances are not factoring into the decision, since you did not mention that as a variable.

If the urban environment is important for him (it was when my nephew was picking a school, and he ended up at Macalester), then you should probably scratch Grinnell off the list.

Given that Macalester and Carleton are both in the Twin Cities, it comes down to fit. Has he looked at the course offerings at both schools? Checked teacher ratings? In terms of population, Macalester might have more of an international bent and Carleton more of a scholarly one, but that’s just my gut feeling and not based on anything but supposition. The quarter/semester thing is going to be personal preference. I like a slower pace which gives you more time to digest the material, but that’s just my opinion.

9

As others have noted, no bad choices here.

First, “quirky introvert” screams Carleton to me.

Second, you have an urban campus, a outer-ring suburb campus, and a rural campus. I doubt anyone would like each equally, so there should be a preference here.

Finally, if you have a strong idea of what area of study(ies) is of interest, you should sit in on some classes in that field. With relatively small schools like this, it is important to make sure you like the Prof’s in your department, since chances are you are going to be seeing a lot of them over the next four years. This helped our S make his final decision.

Good luck!

10

If he doesn’t want to be too stressed out, the trimester system at Carleton would increase that. Students’ intensity will be similar at Carleton and Grinnell, a bit less at Macalester, because Mac students often divert that intensity to political involvement and action. :slight_smile: There’s SO MUCH going on at Grinnell that really your student wouldn’t be bored, and if they really miss skyscrapers they can spend a break/weekend away (DesMoines for the weekend, or Break shuttle to Chicago). So, based on what you said, I’d think your top contenders would be Grinnell and Macalester.
If he thinks he can take the intensity, Carleton would fit the rest of his personality but since he wants something less intense than his high school, I’d cross it out.

11

@LoveTheBard, Carleton isn’t “in the Twin Cities”. It is in Northfield, a small town about 35 miles south of the cities. Mac is in a residential neighborhood of St. Paul. My preference would be Carleton of the three. Yes, they are on the trimester, but they also only take 3 classes at a time. Winter break is also nice and long. The cities are not far away. OP, if they admitted your kid, he likely will do fine there. My D2 was admitted to Carleton (and Mac),but went elsewhere – Carleton is not really top tier in terms of intensity, one reason my kid didn’t pick it as that was what she wanted.

12

^^^What intparent said^^^

Any school can be intense if you let it be so, but Carleton is not at all designed to be intense. The Trimester works great, and the long break is welcome and handy for people flying to and from school.

Good luck!

13

^^^ What intparent + coldinminny said

Carleton is rigorous, but incredibly cooperative. it’s also a place marked by incredible acceptance, playfulness, fun-loving, where social bonds are deep and wide and continue long past graduation. Most look back at their years there as transformative and, often, quite simply the best of their lives.

14

^^^ What intparent + coldinminny + 1190 said!

You really can’t go wrong here. What I know about them …

Ds1 and a bff both applied to all three, and both got in to all of them. For them, Mac definitely was the odd man out. I really liked the school when I visited. Ds2 has a friend at Mac who seems to be thriving. He’s always posting about some political event/campaign/initiative. I don’t get the sense that it’s quite as intellectual as the other two, but it seems more politically active/aware. Personally, I’d like that, but I could see where it wouldn’t appeal to everyone. I’m sure it just depends on your “people.”

Ds’s bff chose Grinnell. He really loved it there. He moved back home, and two of his bffs followed him here! The academics seemed strong, and he found a real home there. Following his parents’ posts on FB, I got the sense that the town is much smaller than Northfield. They always posted from the same three places. lol

Ds chose Carleton. Loved it. I’m interested that people would think it’s academically intense. Yes, it’s on the trimester system, but students only take three classes. I never heard ds stressed out about the workload, though, certainly and appropriately, he was busy at times. When you wrote this – “He is a bit of a quirky introvert and is looking for a college that will be challenging, but also provide balance for personal/emotional growth” – I thought it was a slam dunk for Carleton because it sounds like my son as a senior in HS. Quirky? Check. Introvert? Check. Wanted strong academics? Check. Providing for personal/emotional growth? Check. Only he called it a sense of community. When he revisited Carleton the last week in April senior year, he knew that he’d found his community.

I told him that I see Carleton as an incubator for kids with all the goods who don’t even know yet that they have all the goods.

How much sleep he got actually was a running joke among friends. I used to listen to his radio show, which he co-hosted with a friend, and the friend once said, “Mrs. Youdon’tsay, when (ds) goes home for break, can you have him seen by a doctor because he sleeps so much.” When I asked ds after the show how much he sleeps, he said 8 hours, sometimes more. lol Even in HS, I didn’t let my kids burn the midnight oil so getting eight hours of sleep was the norm not the exception. And he still graduated with Latin honors. Not the top Latin honors, but still. He was able to strike the right balance of work and fun and sleep. He played a sport, traveled with his team, had a work-study job and had much fun. Sometimes too much, but that’s for another post …

Again, all good choices. Lucky son! My kids wouldn’t have wanted to go to a school where they weren’t intellectually challenged, and they were well-prepared. Sounds like your ds is, too. Let us know what you decide!

15

Great choices! My quirky introvert didn’t apply to Carlton or Mac (we visited Mac and it just didn’t feel right to her), but she was accepted at Grinnell and had a difficult time choosing between Grinnell and Beloit last year. She especially loved the open distribution at Grinnell. Like your son, she worked hard in hs and was hoping for a better balance of fun/academics in college. In the end, she chose Beloit and is very happy there, but I suspect she would have been equally happy at Grinnell.

16

I am so grateful for all your feedback to my original post re. my son’s college dilemma - it was truly very helpful. I did want to let you know the final outcome. My son will be going to Grinnell this fall. They offered him an excellent aid package and he really liked the students and faculty he met at accepted student weekend. Most of all he liked the diversity and could see himself finding friends fairly easily. He also was attracted to all the study abroad & outside of classroom opportunities. We (parents) are also very happy he chose Grinnell - we know he will work hard, but we believe Grinnell will offer him the time and space for fun, personal growth and balance. Now we move on to buying parkas, snow boots and long underwear. Again thanks to all and best wishes to you and yours.

17

Thank you for the update!

18

Congrats! You might want to hold off buying a lot of winter stuff. I ran out and bought DS a heavier coat, Russian style hat (his choice) and snow boots. Coat was worn once maybe twice and boots once. No long underwear. One of the pluses of a compact campus.

19

Thanks so much for coming back and letting us know the final decision! I always appreciate hearing the outcome after the debate. And I love a happy ending…which for your student is just a beginning!

20

Congratulations! Great choice. I’m sure your son will have a terrific four years. Thanks for letting us know!