In the general college selection forum, I described my child’s college search. This is an excerpt describing our impressions of Macalester.
Sasha far preferred Mac to Oxy but far preferred UPS to Mac. When Sasha applied to four colleges, we discussed whether it would make sense to add some “better” (i.e., more selective) colleges to the list. Given Sasha’s criteria, Mac was perhaps the most obvious choice, but Sasha concluded that, even if Mac would be “better” for many people, UPS (along with Beloit, Lawrence or Willamette) would be better for Sasha.
Like Oxy, Mac was very diverse. But unlike most of the Oxy students we saw, most Mac students seemed to be truly interested in their studies. As we walked around campus we heard a lot of conversations about the substance of what was being taught. The classes Sasha attended were terrific. Sasha thought that Mac’s students generally seemed passionate about what they were doing without being pretentious. Sasha noticed that many Mac students also had great senses of humor. In addition to being serious about their studies, many students seemed to take advantage of the many internship opportunities and public service opportunities available in the Twin Cities. Mac puts a lot of resources into internships, study-abroad programs, and public service, and has a whole building devoted to those activities. Mac also has great art and music facilities, although we didn’t see that many people using them while we were there.
Mac was the only college we visited that offered an urban experience better than UPS’s. Mac is located in an interesting neighborhood, with commercial areas and pretty residential streets in multiple directions. The campus directly abuts a nice shopping area. There’s a Middle Eastern restaurant owned by an Israeli guy who’s the son of one Jewish parent and one Palestinian parent. There’s a bookstore owned by Prairie Home Companion radio host Garrison Kiellor. (“Never heard of him,” said Sasha, who has little affinity for public radio but nevertheless acknowledged that the bookstore was nice.) There are cafes, restaurants, bike shops, jewelry stores, music stores, etc. If you can afford to shop there, it’s hard to beat the convenience of having a Patagonia store selling high quality winter clothing literally fifty feet from campus. In addition, the downtowns of both Minneapolis and St. Paul are accessible by public transportation, as are many other fun neighborhoods. The Twin Cities are undeniably cold in the winter, but the cultural life offered by the cities is spectacular. People are out on the streets—going to cafes, bars, clubs, shops, theaters, museums and so on—twelve months a year.
Though Sasha liked Minneapolis and St. Paul very much, Sasha found Mac’s campus to be a little drab compared to the other campuses we visited. (As we were leaving, Sasha commented that we might have to come back to the Twin Cities for another visit someday because the University of Minnesota might be a great place for graduate school.) Mac has one gorgeous Romanesque building at the center of campus (“Old Main”) and also has built a spectacular new arts building (the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center). The building devoted to internships, study-abroad programs and public service also is new and pretty nice. But most of the campus is flat, lacking in trees (at least compared to the other campuses we visited), and unremarkable architecturally. The new gym is a monstrosity, though a very functional and comfortable one. The science building is a bit worn and also ugly. The Dayton Campus Center is bright and airy but definitely could use a facelift.
It didn’t help that we were seeing Mac right after UPS. The Twin Cities are still chilly in March, and there wasn’t a blade of green grass to be found.
In Sasha’s opinion, Mac also lacked school spirit, at least compared to UPS, Beloit and Lawrence. I strongly disagreed, but I agreed that Mac can’t keep its school colors straight. Relatively few people seemed to be wearing Mac clothing on campus. Some people we know who live nearby commented that they did not know what Mac’s official colors are, even though they walk though campus all the time. Are Mac’s colors orange and blue, like the team uniforms? Maroon, like the school insignias scattered around campus? Pastel yellow-orange and lavender, like some brochures we saw? I actually found the Mac students to be very spirited in their own understated way. The Mac students we met seemed very proud to be Mac students, even if they did not announce their pride on their sweatshirts. And we saw many Mac athletes wearing blue and orange “Mac” gear. But Sasha was not convinced.
Unfortunately, I think Sasha’s less-than-enthusiastic reaction to Mac may have had less to do with Mac and more to do with the other high school students, and the parents of other students, who were visiting Mac the day we were there. Sasha was almost physically repelled by a few of the families touring the campus with us. Mac clearly attracts many very highly credentialed students, including quite a few who also apply to extremely selective colleges like Carleton, Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Brown, Chicago, Columbia and Yale. Without going into detail, I’ll just say that a few of the visiting high school students, and their parents, had a tendency to use subtle and not-so-subtle methods to communicate the kids’ impressive credentials to others in the group, and Sasha wanted nothing to do with them. If I had been choosing a college, my first choice might well have been Mac, even if Mac attracts a few more hyper-competitive kids than UPS or Beloit, and even if Mac’s campus isn’t as pretty as UPS’s or Beloit’s.
Frankly, most of the students we encountered who actually were enrolled at Mac—in contrast to a handful of the ones who were visiting with us—struck me as friendly, bright and a lot like students at colleges that Sasha preferred. But Sasha was the person whose opinion mattered and Sasha did not want to go to Mac