<p>Hi!
I'm a current junior and I've just started looking at Macalester. I'm really interested in the school because it seems like a very accepting and liberal community. But being the east coast hermit that I am (mainly NYC), I have to ask, how diverse is Macalester in its Minnesota setting? And what is St. Paul like?</p>
<p>I’m a Minneapolis resident with a daughter that is looking at LACs (not Mac, too much in our back yard). The cities are not as “white” and Scandinavian as the Minnesota stereotype would have you believe. Actually, minorities now make up the majority of students for both Minneapolis and St. Paul. This is for the cities themselves, not the burbs. The second largest Hmong population in the country (after California) is located here. There is a substantial and growing Latino community in both cities. There is a substantial Somali community as well. There is a good sized GLBT community as well. There are, of course, Asians of various backgrounds and African Americans as well. The food scene has improved markedly with the increasing diversity here. I’m Asian myself and I can now get most food (ingredients or restaurant fare) I want here.</p>
<p>St. Paul is a nice small/medium city. A bit more traditional and laid back than Minneapolis which is right across the river. It does have state government and a host of small colleges. The Twin Cities are both very livable urban areas with lots of cultural opportunities. Largest number of off Broadway theaters after NY. Good music scene and good art scene. Minneapolis has a bigger cultural scene, but it’s quite accessible. Lots of outdoor recreational opportunities as well as there are lots of parks, bike trails, groomed ski trails and outdoor skating rinks in the winter. Mac is in a very nice middle - upper middle class urban neighborhood with pretty good access to some nice shops and restaurants. Other colleges that are basically in the same general area include Hamline, St. Catherine’s, St. Thomas and Concordia University.</p>
<p>If you have some specific questions, I’d be happy to respond.</p>
<p>And Macalester offers a lot of opportunities to do things in the community as compared to LACs that are off on a hill somewhere. This is also part of their “global citizenship” philosophy; it includes what’s a bus ride away.</p>
<p>Compared to NY, the Twin Cities (like pretty much elsewhere in the country) is not as large or diverse. But it is plenty diverse and there is quite a lot going on. Some Mac students don’t go beyond campus much, but others do. The main form of public transportation is the bus. Biking is also possible (although you wouldn’t want to do it in the depths of winter), depending on how far people like to ride.</p>
<p>Ah yes, but you could join the ranks of the hardy Minnesota Bicyclists that bike all winter! Public trans isn’t bad here. Not really great, but not bad. Light rail is coming, but it is still years off. We have a number of friends who moved here from NY City and seem quite happy with living in the Cities. FWIW, irony points and all, my daughter is looking at Barnard, among other schools.</p>
<p>What’s the difference in student body/diversity between Macalester and Carlton?</p>
<p>Mac</p>
<p>2008 Enrollment: 1920</p>
<p> Ethnicity of Students from U.S.
0.9% American Indian/Alaskan Native
4.6% African-American
8.8% Asian/Pacific Islander
3.8% Hispanic
69.5% White</p>
<p> International Students
12.4% from 87 countries</p>
<p>Carleton</p>
<p> 2008 Enrollment: 2005</p>
<p> Ethnicity of Students from U.S.
0.6% American Indian/Alaskan Native
4.8% African-American
10.0% Asian/Pacific Islander
5.5% Hispanic
73.3% White</p>
<p> International Students
5.8% from 44 countries</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Interesting to see the huge number of intl students, relatively, at Mac.</p>
<p>The internationalism is real at Mac. So is the friendliness of students and faculty. It was truly more diverse than most LACs we looked at.</p>
<p>Both Macalester and the Twin Cities are more diverse, ethnically and internationally speaking, than are Carleton and Northfield.</p>
<p>I’m also from NYC and I visited both and found that I personally really liked Macalester, much more so than Carleton. I really liked the Twin Cities when I visited; they seem like great resources without seeming at all overwhelming, and they seemed both nice and pretty and family-friendly without sacrificing any sort of cultural/entertainment presence. I also found the students at Macalester, aside from being simply more diverse ethnically, more appreciative of their surroundings than the students at Carleton as well as more aware of political and social justice issues (without being hipsters, which was great!). I found Carleton to be a bit too slow-paced and rural for me, and the student body also seemed to be more rural and jock-esque rather than urban activist-esque.</p>