<p>Hey I was wondering if there is a good social scene at Mac. I like to have a good time and party and I wanted to know if I can do that at Mac.</p>
<p>If you want a party school, or a school with enormous parties, don't go to a liberal arts college. There aren't the numbers to have hundreds of people in one house going crazy.
So there aren't big parties here, but otherwise there're a lot of parties. They tend to happen in houses off campus. People also go to clubs. I prefer just hanging out with some friends at someone's apartment or a pub, and that's very common.
There are groups of students who drink and party a ton. The football and rugby teams come to mind, and they have a blast. Generally people don't do anything during the week, but it really depends on who your friends are.
The school also sponsors dances almost every weekend, but they're really lame and you won't go to them at all after your freshman year.</p>
<p>I apologize. I did not mean to come off as a big partier. I seemed to have phrased my question incorrectly. I was wondering if the students at Mac have fun and find things to do when they are not studying. I know academically Mac is a great fit for me, now Im trying to figure out if it is a place where I will be happy. I in no way meant to imply that I was looking for a huge party scene, I realize the focus of a small liberal arts college is on the actual education, I was just curious to what the level of social activity on campus was like.</p>
<p>Oh, answering that is a lot easier. Like I said, people do a variety of things. Clubs are really popular, so for example the outing club goes to a climbing wall every week (or at least I know they did last semester) and the swing club dances together every week and also go to swing clubs, bring in special teachers, and plan dances.
Often people will get off campus once every week or two and have dinner with some friends. There are a lot of great restaurants close to campus (Thai, Nepali, a Middle Eastern restaurant is opening up next month, Afghani, pizza..).
My friends and I will often just do something random to relax. Like an enormous pillow fight in the middle of campus. I think there was a late night capture the flag game tonight that I forgot to go to.<br>
There are also a lot of great resources to take advantage of in the cities, like concerts and theatre stuff. Those things stick out because they're special treats, but most people stay on campus during the weekends and there's definitely plenty to do. </p>
<p>The emphasis here is on the academics, but it's not overwhelming. Most people will study on weeknights, but relax on Friday and Saturday nights by doing any of the things I mentioned or something else. I think of the social scene as Midwestern casual; you can do whatever you want and no one is going to pressure you to do something else. Some people drink a lot, some not very much, and some not at all. Whatever you like to do is fine (except enormous parties, as I said before).</p>
<p>Generally, as far as my experience, people study or work on weekdays. On Friday nights people tend not to do work. People party/go to the dances (drunk, generally helps a lot)/go out to a club or concert or restaurant/do something different and typically not sober. Saturdays is a mix, if people have huge amounts of work they might stay in for Saturday night, or people might party on Saturday night if they want to. And Sundays everybody wishes they had done more work on Saturday so everybody is working and complaining to other people about working the whole day. But its fun.
I think lack of pressure is the big thing. The only thing Ive seen frowned upon is the use of hard drugs, but drinking, smoking (anything), peircings, streaking, dancing in the rain, clubbing, watching weird artsy movies, watching Clueless, beer pong, napping, cookings cheap Asian food together, photo shoots with friends, going to the mall, walking to starbucks and not buying anything, having de-stress girly dance parties with cheesy 8th grade music and makeup, walks across campus, going out to a fancy restaurant, stargazing from the top of the fire escape of Carnegie Hall, Trips for bubble tea @ Tea Garden, Walks to the Mississippi river (for chilling, scenery, star watching, philosophical chats, exercise, escape)Capture the flag in the library after closing, snowball fights, midnight biking, group for fun only reading circles, ice cream eating, and penny throwing fights are all things Ive done (exception streaking and peircing) here at Mac. Mostly on the weekends and many of them multiple times.
During the week, people do a lot of work, its true. But on my floor we make a social event out of it, studying in the hall or the lounge or with friends somewhere on campus.
We also make a weekly ritual out of Wednesdays @ 8|7c watching America's Next Top Model, then Project Runway then America's Next Top Model (fall, winter, spring seasons on UPN) and this was a great way for us to "study", unwind, and socialize. It wasnt just girls, Tyra and Heidi bring the guys in for us. </p>
<p>Im a freshman, and with the exception of Vespers services at Bethel on Sunday nights and trips to the Mall of America I have pretty much stayed within a mile and a half of campus for most of my weekends. Ive gone out into the cities a few times, but in general, found enough to do near enough campus for walking. </p>
<p>So in essence, yes people work/study a lot, but there is always somebody to do it with if you want or if you want to do something else on the week days there are people to chill with and on the weekends there are parties and extra fun if you want it.</p>
<p>IF/WHEN the baseball house throws open parties go with a friend.</p>