How are the linguistics and history programs at Macalester? These are my two primary areas of interest at the moment.
Sorry no one has responded. Macalester is a small college. And linguistics is often either not offered by small colleges, or it is a very small department. The history department is good, and the linguistics department is surprisingly active for a small department. I was surprised by the number of linguistics majors and minors at the 2015 graduation. Both majors benefit from Macalester’s mission of providing a global education - in all senses of the word. Before studying abroad, Mac students need a background in the language of their chosen country, so that spurs a lot of students to study a foreign language to fluency. So many students come to Mac with proficiency in more than one language, they either continue to study those begun, or branch out to new ones. That fact probably accounts for at least some of the Linguistics majors and minors. Best to check the courses offered, however, since it is a small department.
Greetings from a recent Macalester alum and a summer employee of the Admissions office! My name is Angela, and I graduated in May having majored in History and minored in German Studies.
The history department at Mac is incredibly well-rounded. While several of our professors have geographic and/or temporal specialties, students are exposed to a variety of historic narratives from places and eras often not included in the typical history department. A global history approach is common within a single course, even if that course is focused on a specific country or region. In fact, one requirement for the major is that students must take at least one course in global and/or comparative history.Students must also take a course on a period before 1800, and one after 1800. Students are also required to take three courses covering three different geographical regions. There is one required methods course (Study of History). Finally, seniors write a history capstone in the fall, allowing them to choose their own topic and research their own question throughout the course of the semester.
My personal experience in the department was wonderful. It worked out so that my first history professor at Macalester was also my supervisor for my final project. He was beyond helpful, and it felt really neat to be able to bookend my time at Mac with such a knowledgeable, friendly, helpful resource right at my fingertips. Professors are more than willing to offer guidance and clarification on written assignments, and many of them work in conjunction with the research librarians on campus to provide further assistance to their classes.
While studying abroad is not required for history majors, it is encouraged, and there are no departmental limits on where you study abroad, because majors don’t need to declare a focus within the field of history. I could have studied abroad pretty much anywhere (I chose Edinburgh, Scotland!). I did briefly consider going to Germany, since I was a German minor, but decided against it. Having said that, though, there is no fluency requirement to study abroad in a foreign-language-speaking country. Many students use the opportunity of studying abroad to improve their language skills and bring them closer to a level of fluency (that’s what many of my friends did). If you’re majoring in a specific language, there might be recommended or required study abroad programs which in themselves might require a certain level of proficiency, but generally speaking Macalester has no such requirement.
I hope I answered some of your questions - if you have any more concerns or queries, feel free to contact the Admissions office at admissions@macalester.edu.
Thank you for correcting me MacAdmissions. The programs I’ve been aware of required a home stay and therefore some facility in the language of the country. So the language proficiency requirement must be program-specific.
Thanks opine1 and macAdmissions!