Hi College Confidential Community: This is my 1st post here. My family is having a rough time deciding which college our only child should choose. She was accepted to 4 great schools and has narrowed it down to Wellesley or Macalester. Her dad and I like W, but she likes the ‘vibe’ better at Mac.
Her major is Linguistics with a minor (possibly double major) with Computer Science. She plans on graduate school after graduating.
We are hoping to sway her because we think W is a better school for her major (more faculty for less students) and the strong alumnae network. Also, the Boston area is full of college students and will offer her more opportunity for internships and fun during her college years compared to the tri-cities in the midwest (Minneapolis/St.Paul in MN). Also, the winters in MN are pretty fierce.
Daughter likes the people at Mac more (from just a 1.5 day visit) and she can play on a sports team that W does not have (except they have a ‘club’ version of her sport).
Any parents with children at either college and those students currently attending or who graduated from these schools will help us tremendously.
Thanks in advance!!!
Obviously, Wellesley is a terrific school, an elite school. It isn’t just one of the finest women’s colleges; it is one of the finest liberal arts colleges in the country. It does indeed have a strong alum network and a strong name overall. It is a fine, fine school.
But so is Macalester. Others might disagree, but I do not see a great difference, academically, between Wellesley and Macalester. Wellesley might be a bit better known, but as I often say, even the most prestigious LACs (Bowdoin, Williams, Carleton, Wesleyan, Grinnell, etc.) are relatively anonymous among the general public. The average person’s jaw does not drop to hear that so-and-so attends Grinnell. Instead, the average person thinks, “What is Grinnell? Why would someone attend such a funny-sounding, no-name school?”
Thus, your daughter really should trust her gut. If she loves Mac, that’s where she should go. She’ll lose no real advantages because she “passes up” Wellesley. It sounds like you love Wellesley. You don’t like MN winters. You are hoping to sway her (“We are hoping to sway her because we think W is a better school…”) Make sure that you truly listen to what your daughter wants (I’m not saying that you are not; I’m just putting this out there).
Finally, if her plans are to go on to graduate school, believe me, she will be fine at either school. LACs are pipelines to top-notch graduate schools.
Is it your family’s decision or is it the decision of the young woman who is your daughter? You’ve raised someone who knows what she wants and who values things more real than prestige. Well done.
One thing to consider, from your own statement: Boston is indeed full of college students. So opportunities for internships could well be better in a place where she is not competing against students from all those other very big name colleges.
Graduate schools will know and appreciate both schools.
On this note, Wellesley offers cross-registration with MIT (tops for both linguistics and CS) and a shuttle bus between the campuses. I don’t know how many students take advantage of this, though.
How well do you know the midwest? Winters in MN may be a bit colder, and winters in MA may be a bit snowier, but really there isn’t enough difference to say that one or the other is worse. What makes you so certain that Boston will offer her more opportunities for internships and fun? There is plenty going on in the Twin Cities.
As a graduate of one of the other sister colleges, I totally get your wow she’s gotta go to Wllesley reaction. But truly, unless the aid packages are so diferent that Macalester is the wrong choice, you need to leave this up to her. She can thrive there too. It is OK if she wants a co-ed, more easy-going environment for her college years.
I’m from the NE and I love Mac. It’s just a really vibrant school full of people who care-and who doesn’t love the Twin Cities?(And I’m from Boston). If she feels more comfortable at Mac, it will still get her where she wants to go.
Hello, educationispower. Back in the day, I attended a women’s college and loved it. I hope someday to send one of our daughters to one! The mentoring and support and unique environment are so empowering. Like you, I would have a hard time watching my daughter turn down Wellesley.
However…if your daughter prefers Macalaster, and if finances are roughly equal, and unless you have told her all along that there are geographical limitations, if I were you, I would step aside and trust that she can own this decision.
There will be rough patches (inevitably!) in the next four years, and you want her to face them knowing that she – not you – made a wholehearted commitment to being there, wherever she decides to attend.
I am a big fan of both schools. I hope both end up on my daughter’s list when the time comes.
But the best choice for her in this instance is the one where she sees herself thriving, that she will embrace without reservation. Sounds as if that might be Mac, and it’s a great choice. (MSP is a great area.)
Wellesley is not in Boston, as you most likely know. Its a timely commute into the city, especially to MIT. From what I understand (we researched this five years ago when my D applied to W) few students actually use the MIT cross registration feature and only venture into the city on the occasional weekends. I also believe that Wellesley is self-selecting and not that diverse, especially being a women’s college, but even more so in other ways, and the co-ed component at Macalester cannot be ignored.
Personally I think this is a no-brainer. Your D wants Macalester and its her four years. If she goes to Wellesley because you want her to and she’s unhappy, what happens then? I think you are hung up on prestige, but your D isn’t. I also agree with an earlier post that these are same tier schools, neither is considerably better than the other.
Jumping on the ‘let her choose’ bandwagon, seconding all of the points the previous posters have already made, and doubling down on:
there is no objectively ‘wrong’ choice here: the differences between the 2 schools are small enough that her options at the end of college will depend on what she did while in college, not which college she went to
and
she needs to own this choice- and it will be better for her, for you and (especially) your relationship if you can say (and mean): ‘fair enough: it was our job to be sure that you thought through all the pros and cons of this big choice, and you have done that. now that you have made your choice, congratulations, well done and here’s to a great adventure’.
…and when she does, inevitably, hit a rough spot, never ever ever ever say ‘well, you should have gone to the other place’, b/c there would have been rough spots there as well
That is just not so. Many Wellesley women take advantage of MIT Cross-registration, (many MIT students take advantage the other way too), and a many women from Wellesley go into the city every weekend.
I agree with the parents reasoning in terms of linguistics, CS and winter, but I also agree that it should be the students decision. Macalester is coed and Wellesley is not. That’s a huge difference.
This is a great opportunity to allow your child learn about herself and to set the course of her own life even if it means potentially making a mistake that she surely will recover from if it does indeed turn out to be a mistake. It would be hubris not to acknowledge that this bright girl might actually know herself better than her parents. Strength of character is built around such decisions. And you should be proud of her either way.
As we all know, there will be many mistakes made in life, and one cannot be afraid to make them.
If you’re in this wonderful position of having acceptances to both these schools, and you can afford either, then you should revel in the joy of being able to give your daughter that choice. Many families have to make decisions based on money or have limited acceptances to schools they are excited about. Her choice of major could easily change, so basing the choice on faculty number is probably not the way to go. It might be more informative to look at the course offerings, but even there, as others have said, these are both excellent schools. Prestige shouldn’t sway you, because it’s very true that the general public is clueless about all LACs. I’m taking my D19 to tour Scripps College soon and everyone I’ve mentioned this to has zero clue where we’re going…and we’re just 100 miles south of Claremont. One woman works for Scripps Clinic and told me, “I didn’t know we had a college.” No…you have a common benefactor family. Sigh. So the “name”, even of Wellesley, should be a nonfactor. She has a good chance of loving either school, so you really can’t go wrong with either one. If she says Mac, I’d let her own her choice, the first major one of her life.
The number of professors in a specific department is only one factor and is not, in and of itself, a reason to believe that a department is “better.” All the professors could be apathetic, or the smaller number of professors at Macalester could be better teachers and mentors, or there may be teachers who teach classes in more areas that your daughter is interested in, or whatever. Also, college students 1) change their majors often and 2) take classes in a lot of different areas, not just their major.
(Besides, a quick check doesn’t show that Wellesley has more linguistics professors. Macalester has 3 permanent linguistics faculty plus three additional ones that contribute coursework. Wellesley has two professors of cognitive and linguistic sciences and five professors in other departments (psychology, philosophy, Korean, computer science) whose research overlaps with linguistics. (A lot of the other affiliated professors’ research overlaps with cognitive science only, not linguistics.)
The Twin Cities are also flush with college students - Saint Paul is actually second in the U.S. in terms of number of higher education institutions per capita - and Macalester is actually IN the Twin Cities. I don’t necessarily think that Boston would be more fun than the Twin Cities - Minneapolis and St. Paul both have pretty good quality of life scores.
So basically, I agree with everyone else - if she prefers Macalester, then she should go there!
