<p>Hey Macalester acceptees, My roommate and I are each hosting a PF during the second spring sampler (April 20th) (sorry guys, girls only)
So if you decide to come and don't want to smoke up and haven't sent in your Sampler weekend paperwork, especially if you are a musican, a soccer player or a golfer (me, me and my roommate respectively), I'd be happy to host one of you! Feel free to mark it down on the paper to request a host.
Its a game though, (because it is Sunday night and I've done too much work already and I feel like having some fun!)... you gotta look up my name or my roommate's. Im on the soccer team, number 27, and my roommate is a freshman on the golf team and is not from Illinois.
Ready set go!
But either way, haha, if you come to a sampler weekend (april 6-7 and 20-21) I hope you have a fabulous time! Maybe by then the snow will have melted (we've already done the "look all the snow is almost gone!!" thing once this year, but then it snowed like 16 inches over break...) and there will be more people outdoors.</p>
<p>Same goes for me....I'd be happy to host a female, and I can help you out with music, poli sci, econ (obviously), religious life, or anything admissions related. Hope you enjoy your visit!</p>
<p>This may be a little off-topic for this thread, but I'll ask anyway. My son is a high school junior with an interest in economics and poli sci. My understanding is that Mac has a very good econ dept. Can you elaborate? I probably don't know the specific questions to ask at this point. Also, you mentioned something about religion. What is it like for Jewish kids?</p>
<p>In response to the question re/ Jewish kids, my daughter (a junior) is Jewish (Reform). There is an active Mac Jewish Organization (mostly female, a few guys), no Hillel. I think Mac would be a difficult place for kids who are extremely observant and/or Orthodox, although there is a Hebrew house where students can live together and keep kosher. For others, it seems there are plenty of opportunities for involvement, and there is a significant presence of Jewish kids on campus. My daughter currently is studying abroad in Senegal, and attended seder at the home of the Israeli ambassador in Dakar ("wherever you go, there's always someone Jewish", as the camp song goes). In my opinion, much of what goes on at Mac aligns with the values of active, liberal Judaism. If you'd like more details, don't hesitate to e-mail me privately. </p>
<p>Some of my daughter's friends are economics majors, and they find the curriculum quite challenging and interesting. </p>
<p>As a parent, I could not be happier with my daughter's experience at Mac. It is not an elitist place, although the students are very bright and the academics are rigorous. It's not for everyone, but for kids like my daughter, it's been a great fit.</p>
<p>The econ department is challenging. It is the only department at macalester with a decidedly less liberal bent, and the only department where I have encountered competition for grades. That aside, the atmostphere is that if we're going to struggle, we'll do it together, and its not unusual to find a group of 10+ econ students slaving away in the library the night before a problem set is due. The teachers demand excellence, which can be challenging, but yields very positive results. For some examples, see
<a href="http://www.macalester.edu/economics/aftermacalester/%5B/url%5D">http://www.macalester.edu/economics/aftermacalester/</a></p>
<p>Basically, having a Macalester degree in Economics will both teach you an amazing work ethic, but also prepare you quite well for the financial/business world. It is a more theoretical degree, requiring macro and micro economics, econometrics, financial accounting, and electives, which means that it is much more adaptable than a degree in accounting or business that you could obtain at another college. You can specialize, however, in either of these or obtain a general economics degree. I've never taken an economics course that wasn't a challenge (and I'm more than halfway through the major), but they're all well worth it.</p>
<p>Political Science is also strong, although less well known, and offers a variety of courses with a civic engagement aspect which is unique. We have the Chuck Green Fellowship, an opprotunity for 12 sophomores and juniors to study a specific area of urban politics during the spring semester and then participate in a 10 week collaboration with a nonprofit the following summer on a $4000 stipend. Also, since an internship is required for the political science major, you'll find a variety of opprotunities in the capital that can be taken concurrently with legislative politics courses.</p>
<p>Thank you both vancmom and econmajor8. I hope we can plan a visit to the campus.</p>
<p>if you decide to visit, I'm a tour guide, and worked in admissions last summer, and generally know too much about campus....anyway, I would be happy to meet up with you and your son and answer any questions or show you around. g'luck with the search process!</p>
<p>I hate to be politically incorrect but why are so many of the names on the link above foreign? I have nothing against diversity (I live in the middle of NYC), just curious.</p>
<p>International students, no matter where they go to college, tend to major in economics at least half the time. Here international students most often major in econ and something else (with many exceptions of course). So the economics department has a lot of diversity. The city and country names in parantheses on that page are where people are from. I'm not sure what the percentage of domestic students in the department is; maybe econmajor08 could say, but in my experience it's a large number.</p>
<p>Part of the reason that so many international students major in economics is that a lot of their visas and/or scholarships are tied to a specific area of study (economics, biology, or chemistry, usually). I don't know percentages off the top of my head, but the deparment is usually a pretty good blend of domestic and international. Also, since international students have to land certain types of jobs in order to get visa extensions, oftentimes they'll be the ones with the slightly more pretigious jobs, as opposed to say working for a non profit or political campaign, because they have to in order to stay in the country.</p>
<p>Thanks for the explanation. Typically, do these international students stay to work in the US or go back to their home country?</p>
<p>In the short run, most will work in the United States. Several economics majors I know are planning on going back to their country to get involved in government/politics/business there, while others are staying here. I think it just depends on the individual, what opprotunities they find, and their reasons for coming to the US for school in the first place.</p>