Colgate vs. Macalester?

College Search & Selection
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@MYOS1634 : Wonderful, thoughtful post.

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Of course, I mention it as I was once obsessed more with the name than quality and overall happiness. It has been quite a humbling experience, but in the end, you will be where you belong. Sidenote: Macalester is closer to a city (St. Paul) and Colgate is more rural, but not far from Syracuse. I think frat culture is popular at Colgate, but nothing that can’t easily be avoided.

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Thank you so much for this post - super helpful.

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Macalester students posted tons of stuff in YouTube. Students are so engaged with whatever they are doing. A lot of fun meetings in the evening. Just go watch YouTube, I like this school. Kids seem happy there.

Not knowing much about Colgate, my impression is a super expensive School.

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This Forbes article can be worth a look for anyone considering an admission offer from Colgate:

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Have to clear up one thing here. Mac is in the city of St. Paul, just not right downtown. It is really a benign residential neighborhood right in between St. Paul and Minneapolis, either of which is easily reachable by the LRT(maybe 10-15 minutes). The MLS soccer team has a stadium one mile to the north. Shopping is abundant and close, as are entertainment venues, stadiums, head offices (internships), etc
 There are 4-5 universities and colleges within a mile or two, and the two campuses of the U of MN a bit beyond that. It can’t be compared to Colgate and Rochester in that regard.
To me, you just to need to know who you are and what you want in order to make a choice. If you tend more to the preppy, privileged, East coast, old money, possibly Wall Street type and don’t mind spending some time away in a more remote, albeit beautiful location, then Colgate is for you. If you would rather have the choices of being in a relatively large city(we’re not talking NYC, CHI or LA here), and a more down to earth, liberal vibe(we’re not talking Berkeley or Swarthmore here, but it’s certainly more to the Left than Colgate), and can do w/o the “connections” you might make in Colgate, then Mac is for you. Oh, and the airport is close by LRT 25minutes or so? I’ve heard the teaching reasonably good at Mac, but I would expect the same of Colgate.
I have never been to Colgate, but I would guess that it is a more beautiful campus, while Mac is ok, but not distinguished architecturally, and the grounds are OK, but not inspiring. I thought @MYOS1634 's post was great
probably more helpful than mine.

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@college7815 An abundantly disproportionate number of MAC Grads go onto Ph.d. programs and it is very well regarded among graduate schools.