Most of the LACs that my daughter is looking at guarantee housing all four years, and 90% or more of students live on campus for all four years. I imagine that that creates a close sense of community on the campus, and having already visited four of her choices, that is what we have found. I am wondering if this is different at Mac. Does anyone know what percentage of students actually live on campus? Do most upperclassmen find their housing elsewhere? Is there enough going on on campus for fun, or do students mainly venture into the city for enjoyment? My daughter is very excited about visiting and staying overnight at Mac next month, but at the same time she is looking for a setting where there is a ton of school spirit and a great feeling of community. I would love to hear from current students about this. Thanks!
Please answer, would love the input!
Go through the Macalester College discussion under “colleges and universities.” There are some threads about housing and campus community. From what I remember, most students get housing very close to campus, within walking distance. A typical trajectory was to live on campus for the first two years, then a large % do study abroad in their junior year, and when they return, they opt for off campus housing with established friends.
Thank you, @mamaedefamilia I started sifting through older threads and found some info. From what I found, it sounds like there is still a lot to do on campus and that students who move off campus still participate in on campus events. I’d still love to hear from any students or parents of students! Thanks!
I’m also interested in any input from students or parents on this topic - thanks!
@tr831 if nobody answers, I will let you know what we find out in a few weeks because we will be visiting and my daughter is staying overnight with a student host. This is one of her only concerns about Mac, but otherwise she expects to love it!
My daughter is a very happy sophomore at Mac. Although the immediate (and charming) neighborhood is an integral part of the experience, I’ve heard her speak of the “Mac bubble” and do not, at all, have the impression that moving in to the adjacent streets distances the students from the school the way it can at larger or more urban campus. While one of the reasons she chose Macalester was its location, what she loves most is the people-- not only her friends but also the faculty and staff. So many good humans in that place!
She does use public transportation to go do things in the Cities, but my impression is that most of the social scene and things to do are on and around the campus. Lots of organized events and performances – and definitely, I gather, a house party scene, though that also manages to be true places like Grinnell where there’s no city at all. (On the flip side, she doesn’t drink and has plenty of friends and things to do, though the workload is substantial and there’s not tons of down time.) At any rate, the location in our experience has been nothing but a plus. Easy travel, well developed service and internship connections, lovely neighborhood, and plenty of access to the wider world when you want it.
@AllisonMP Thank you for your reply! I was hoping to hear something like this. By the way, how are the dorms? The photos on the Mac website make them look pretty bad, actually. Hoping they look better in person. I read in another thread about freshman sometimes being placed in super-tiny singles? Does this still happen? It also seems very segregated by year, some buildings are all freshmen, some all sophomores. Is this how it is?
The First Year residence halls are. . .functional. I was in one for a tour and one (Doty) for move in day, but I think the photos give a pretty accurate impression. They are clean, maintained, well-staffed-- and very much concrete block steam heat unairconditioned old school. And Dupringles (tiny Dupre singles) are indeed a real thing. There’s no excess capacity given the large sizes of the last few classes, so, yes, people end up in them. Housing for sophomores opens up to some more appealing buildings. My daughter is in Kirk, and I know she has friends in Wallace and GDD.
So, while the housing isn’t a reason to attend, the institutional choice to spend the money on something besides creating luxury for college kids might be. 
My daughter started at Macalester in August, and I just came back from visiting her for family weekend. I also went to a small LAC. The dorms at Mac are not cute nor do they have character" the way many New England LACs do, but my daughter’s room is bigger and more functional than those at my more bucolic campus. It is typical cinderblock dorm construction, but decently maintained and the first year dorms are close to everything.
In my mind, and for my child, the fact that there are separate dorms for first years students is kind of a bummer. With mixed-class dorms, it is easier for student to get informal guidance from older students. Also, first years have kind of a pack mentality, so if your kid doesn’t like that, it can be hard.
As far as I can tell, as a newcomer to Macalester and the Twin Cities, there is a ton of community and school spirit even though many juniors and seniors live off campus. Lots of stuff going on, and my daughter has already had study sessions, social events, etc. with people in her classes or clubs who live off campus, and she is very introverted and having a bit of a hard time transitioning to college. If your child is an extrovert, I think he or she will feel community right away.
Although my child is having some bumps at Macalester, I have only the highest praise for the administrative offices. I was worried that once we plunked our deposit down, the personal attention we had been getting would disappear. But everyone from the Provost to the student workers have answered questions immediately and personally - all the way down to emailing me ideas, including bus routes and other details, for things my disgruntled 14 yo could do while the rest of us were at orientation.
My daughter has met at least once with each of her professors and has had very positive interactions with them. She comes from a much less academically rigorous high school than most Mac students (part of the reason for her transition troubles), but she has only received support from profs and student assistants without any condescension. So, I think the school tries consciously at many levels to make a community out of a diverse group of people.
@IBviolamom, if you have anything to add following your visit, I’d love to hear. Thanks!
@AllisonMP Wow! I remember each dorm name you mentioned from when i graduated from Mac in 1983. How things don’t always change… The dorms were never that great but hopefully they got rid of the one phone at the end of the hall. Mac was a formative experience for me as i suppose college is for most. I have had a niece graduate from there recently, she seemed happy from facebook images.
@“apathetic panda” Sure! We visited in October, did the whole shebang, info session, tour, class visit, overnight, interview.
The info session was actually quite refreshing, it was very small and the woman who spoke was extremely personable. Very low-key, in a good way, meaning that the school pretty much can sell itself and they don’t need to try to impress.
They split up the students and the parents for the tour, a first for us, and we liked it. The campus is pretty compact, perhaps not stunningly beautiful like some other schools we had seen but certainly pleasant with lots of trees. A compact campus is probably quite welcome given those Minnesota winters! There were three academic buildings that you could move between without having to go outside.
My daughter’s experience with the class visit and overnight was simply wonderful. It happened to be a beautiful day, and the philosophy professor took the class outside to sit on the grass. She found the class to be very engaging. Her overnight host was terrific, a sophomore art history major who lived in a three bedroom suite with two roommates, one girl and one guy. Cool that they can have mixed gender suites like that. My daughter really hit it off with her host, and when the girl had something she had to go do, her friends invited my daughter to sit in on their a cappella rehearsal. She found that everyone was super friendly and treated her as though she was already a student there. The food in Cafe Mac was really good. We all had lunch there, and my daughter had dinner and breakfast as well.
It did seem like there was a good community feel to the school. We saw tons of fliers for a lot of on campus events, and all the students we saw on campus seemed happy and sociable. Mac became my daughter’s second choice school, and I think if it was closer to home it might have become her first. Hope this was helpful!
@IBviolamom, a belated thanks for your informative post, which I missed earlier. I think it’s really nice that there are mixed gender suites.
Me too @“apathetic panda”