Hi, my student is currently in a Junior in HS and is interested in running Cross Country and Track & Field at a D3 Liberal Arts College. We live in Ohio and Denison is currently on the list. Also interested in broadening that list and Macalester College is on our radar. Does anyone have any experience with their athletics and the culture there? Also looking for opinions on the area it is in, and if it is safe. And anything else that may be useful to know:) We can already see their academics seem top notch. Thank you in advance!
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The Athletic Director is an absolute rock star. Great academics, elite location, very nice athletic and academic facilities. Small but well placed in arguably the nicest neighborhood of the Twin Cities. Noticeably more politically
liberal than Denison; very liberal even for an LAC. Also Twin Cities are much colder than Columbus (something like 10+ degrees average year round). We were surprised how mild Denison was in February; it snowed at Macalester.
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What regions and type of schools are you otherwise looking for? Tell us more about your kid for other suggestion. I defer to other sport-specific parents here for process etc recommendations for your particular sport.
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We are just getting started in the process. His sister goes to Denison and we live in Ohio. We LOVE Denison. Our son doesn’t know yet what he wants to major in but knows he wants a small LAC. In HS, he is a member of the Speech & Debate team, fall xc and spring track. He is very busy with those three activities so not much time for anything else. He’s taking some AP classes. In terms of region, he is open to going farther away but doesn’t want to go south.
What does he like academically, socially? City vs suburb vs town va rural? We found location and geography, academic intensity/competition and culture/politics/social environments to be the most distiniguishing factors.
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Well the highest concentration of d3 LACs is in the northeast. . . What about Union, Vassar, Colby, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Hobart, Skidmore, St. Lawrence, Bates, Connecticut College, Trinity, Haverford etc etc etc. As @gablesdad said, you will have to give us more information for us to be helpful.
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Minnesota has a wealth of excellent liberal arts colleges but most are much more rural/small town than Macalester. If he prefers that, then he should look at St Olaf and Carleton, too, for sure. If he likes the city location and urban campus instead of a sprawling campus with quads and arboretums, Macalester is hard to beat.
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Budget plays a role here too - as several of these LACs have merit and many don’t, so list suggestions would be more helpful with that info - if the original poster even wants info beyond the original question.
My son graduated from Denison last May and ran T&F for four years there (sprints, so no XC). He had a terrific experience. The track team was at the center of his world there, but the school also got him fired up on academics. He’s just started graduate school in Scotland, and it’s been moving to hear that several of his professors at Denison have reached out to ask how he’s doing. One even “sat in” on one of his classes remotely and engaged with his class. Anyway, I’ve said lots of nice things about Denison elsewhere, and you already know a lot via your daughter, but the point I actually set out to make was that, although NESCAC tends to get a lot of love on CC, the NCAC conference is also a great one. Like the NE, Ohio has (as you know from living there) many great LACs, and many of them (Kenyon, Oberlin, Wooster, OWU, etc.) are in the NCAC. The schools are generally located fairly close together, so commuting to meets is not too bad, not disruptive to classes, and there is both healthy competition and healthy collaboration at meets - my son made many friends at the other schools. For the track team (not sure about XC), there is also at least one good road trip in the spring. Last year, they went to Emory.
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He isn’t sure yet about regions. He doesn’t mind a small town setting but prefers one closer to a city like Denison.
Great info! I appreciate it. Also what grad school in Scotland? That’s so cool!
Like the NCAC, the MIAC offers competition among small schools all located within Minnesota and similarly reduces travel time for athletes.
The OP may want to look at the other schools in that conference, too. Macalester, St. Olaf, and Carleton were already mentioned. Hamline and Gustavus Adolphus are also in the conference as well as several small Catholic universities, if that appeals.
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He’s at the University of Glasgow - great school, great city, but a lot of weather!
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