Based on your posts in this thread, Macalester may be the best environment for you.
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Absolutely!! I love the proximity to everything and they gave a great career presentation. It’s just urban enough for me personally-- I couldn’t do NYU or BU or the like.
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@isla701 I completely agree. The “urban oasis” of Mac and Rhodes are a different feel of a BU, NYU, Northeastern. I love the surrounding neighborhood of Mac and am thrilled to visit the campus in person soon! Keep us posted and thanks for your feedback.
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Okay! Some updates!
I was accepted at Bryn Mawr and Mount Holyoke since I posted this. MHC did not give me enough $$ so I turned them down, but BMC is still a contender.
Davidson waitlisted me. I am going on and writing a LOCI, but not expecting anything obviously.
Wesleyan accepted me!! This makes the decision that much more difficult, as Wesleyan is a great cultural fit. We are going to sit down and run the numbers after the celebration has died down.
Waiting on Tufts (Tuesday) and Yale (Ivy Day) and then decision/visit time it is! Very excited!
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Still need to run the #s, but I’ve been thinking about Mac vs Wes without that all evening and oh wow. (The #s are not that different from what I can tell right now.)
Wes is def more selective/better known, and they have the open curriculum. It’s not in the middle of an urban area like Mac-- much larger campus. Very similar types of students and cultures from what I can tell. I love them both. Any major differences besides finances that I’m missing?
@isla701 Housing costs? I have read that MAC Freshman and Sophomores live on campus, and juniors/seniors live off campus. I don’t know if that is MAC owned housing? I also read that MAC has numerous summer research positions and they will provide housing and a stipend. Free housing might work out well for someone wanting to also get a second summer internship in the Twin Cities.
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It’s one of those “no wrong choice” propositions.
Wesleyan is more “activist” than Macalester but both are political. Other than that, we’re past “fit”, it’s really a matter of flipping a coin. 
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Super good point. I imagine Mac has housing options, but many people get their own housing (which can be expensive but maybe not more so than living in Wes-owned housing for all four years as is required there). Mac is definitely a different feel and probably preferable for someone seeking independence, so that’s something to think about.
Yeah!! I feel the same way!
Mac has all those great opportunities in the Twin Cities but Wes is well known in Boston/NYC, so the urban area factor I feel like is less about job prospects and more about where I’d actually prefer to live.
I think we still might visit Haverford/BMC, but they’ve slipped a little lower on the list, as I definitely prefer the more active campus climate to a sheltered one.
I agree that Haverford and BMC, great schools though they are, might be a bit sleepy compared to Wes and Mac.
I don’t know too much about Mac, but I know a fair bit about Wes, which I still wish my D had applied to. I love the creativity and intellectualism of students there. If creativity is important to you, I’d choose Wes. I do think that Mac students are quite worldly and socially aware. The location is great for students who want easy access to urban life and, important to some, airports. It is fair to say that Wes isn’t particularly close to good transport. That doesn’t seem to bother most people.
In your shoes,
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Haha did you mean to add something at the end? I think it may have been cut off. And yeah, Wes is a really unique place! I’m so heartened to have gotten in, was not expecting it.
My reply got cut off.
What’s the price difference between Wes and Mac? Because Mac for $17k a year will be tough to beat. But that depends on the numbers elsewhere.
Wes did not include the $5500 federal loan and Mac did, so we need to run the numbers in a more detailed manner soon. Thanks for replying! No worries about the cut off reply.
My guess is that if you add the loans back to our COA for Mac, it’s the same as Wes without the loans.
Withdrawn as being beyond the ken of too many.
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This list is from USNWR for 2021. I’m curious about the list you posted. The linked list shows Haverford and Wes the same, with 16% acceptance rate.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-acceptance-rate
I also see Alice Lloyd College, Limestone University, and Jarvis Christian College, all of which place higher than schools such as Tufts, Middlebury, and Hamilton.
This is why I don’t place much value on these lists. No one on CC ever seems to be asking about how they can improve their app to Bacone College, which is apparently more selective than Carleton, Wellesley, and Emory.
We see that the same publication has different results. People can choose to find what they want. Haverford is an excellent, very selective college bottom line, and so are the others.
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Yeah, USN seems way off with those acceptance rates. Limestone is up there as having a 14% acceptance rate, but everywhere else it says 51%.
I just looked at the numbers again and it seems like Haverford and BMC with loans not included (22k with 5500 in loans left out) cost the same as Macalester with loans included (17k + 5500) and Wesleyan with no loans in the package (22k parent and student contribution). So I could appeal the Tri-Co schools if I feel strongly about it. We’ll see.
(Note: the loans I’m referring to are all the same $5500/yr federal loan, which for some reason Wes does not include in its aid but the other 3 do.)
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And then there’s UNC which is $24k, $19k with the loan. And App State which is $13k before loans even come into the picture.
U.S. News considers student profiles for their selectivity ranks, and in this sense their placements appear internally consistent. They have decided not to consider acceptance rates, which they may believe to be easily gamed, not especially relevant, or both.
Okay I did a more serious run of the numbers and Wes actually offered me the best package when looking at direct costs due to the fact that they didn’t include the loan. This is all very interesting… H and BMC are definitely behind!
The net price over 4 years difference between Wesleyan and Macalester is $14,000 right now. It’s not a direct comparison, but my logic was:
Parents will pay $8k more over 4 years at Wes with no loans than they will over 4 years at Mac with a federal loan every year.
Loan will total to $22k.
22-8 = 14k.
Meanwhile, H and BMC are upwards of $25k without taking out a loan…
I sure hope I haven’t calculated wrong. Did not include anything but tuition, room and board. Will be revisiting this.