<p>My daughter is down to the wire trying to decide between Macalester and Whitman. We know they are very different in location and community feel, but that both are great schools academically. She is undecided as to a major. She has visited both campuses and felt she would love either one. She feels torn, any input to help her make her mind up? Thanks. (I am posting a similar message on Whitman's page also.)</p>
<p>I think my roommate and I hosted your daughter this past weekend. (golfer?) If so, she is an incredibly sweet, fun and bright young lady and I would be very pleased to call her a fellow Mac-ite. (Of all the PFs we have hosted this year, I can honestly say she was the most fun and the least awkward!) If shes not your daughter than she's somebody else's sweet, fun, bright, well-adjusted daughter but in either case, I encourage your daughter to attend Macalester, in her situation based upon location. I personally could not deal with attending a small school in the middle of nowhere, the social claustrophobia would suffocate me.</p>
<p>St. Paul vs. Walla Walla? St. Paul wins, hands down.</p>
<p>First off, I want say that I really like Whitman. I never visited (since I only looked at schools in or near cities) but I've heard great things and know two people there who love it. But it sounds like you've posted something in each school's forum and want people to make a case for each school. So I'll give you the Macalester argument.
As I said, I only looked at schools in cities. Macalester's location is probably its biggest positive in this case because we can do so much with it to enhance our four years of college.
-A large number of students do internships. After freshman year internships count for credit, so they're considered another class. They're a way to try out different careers and apply the stuff we've been learning in the classroom.
-Community service is huge here. I really love that, because I think it's important not to live in a bubble for four years. The community service projects I've done here have taught me stuff that I couldn't have gotten from any combination of classes.
-Ease to go home. This isn't a problem if you're from Washington and go to Whitman, but going to school far away from a major airport really adds to travel time. I'm from the west coast, so door to door it takes about five hours, which is nothing. I've never gone home for a weekend, but I like having the possibility if I need to.
-The ability to go off campus. LAC's are small, somewhat intense communities. I like being able to go off by myself every now and then and not see anyone that I know.
-Shopping. If I need a new pair of pants, I can go to Old Navy or Gap or wherever I want and get them. It just makes life more convenient. </p>
<p>The only other major difference between the schools I'd point out is diversity. Though there are more Midwesterners at Macalester than people from either coast, both coasts are really well represented (you can look up the statistics on the admission's page), and there are people from 89 countries as well. Your daughter will meet people from all over the country and the world. I don't know what the geographic statistics are for Whitman, but I know that most of the students are from either Washington or Oregon, so there aren't as many different geographic backgrounds.
Also, though Macalester's domestic racial diversity could certainly be improved, it is better than Whitman's, which adds to the overall diversity of viewpoints and experiences.
So, in sum, I guess I'd say that it's easier to get a more comprehensive education at Mac, because in addition to classes we can learn from the cities and the diversity among our fellow students.</p>
<p>Walla Walla gets 300 sunny days a year.
Something to think abouttt haha. I've heard good things about both schools though, good luck in the decision making!</p>
<p>You have a great future as a detective, oboe. Kidding aside, thank you so much for your reply, especially because you liked my daughter! She really enjoyed her visit to Macalester, and staying with you and your roommate were a good part of that. If you don't mind one more question, where were you deciding between last year at this time, and what were the deciding factors that led you to Mac?</p>
<p>I was deciding between Macalester ($32,500 bill and $$$for travel), Penn State University Park($20,000 bill, $ for travel), BU ($41,000 bill and $$ for travel), Northeastern Honors (something like $5,000 after aid, and $$ for travel) and the waitlists of Cornell and Washington U in St. Louis. I decided to take myself off both waitlists. I didnt really have a clear conception of what I was looking for in a school, but even with very little aid, Macalester lured me with its academics and student body. I realized I should have applied to more LACs, because when I visited Mac I fell in love with the campus atmosphere, the windmill, the students, activism, academic quality, the availability of the soccer team and music programs to the whole student body and not just to majors, and the chance to be one of 1800 and not one of 35000. I have at times regretted attending such a small school, but the quality of the student body and the chance to dash off campus for anything (theraputic shopping although I know your daughter isnt a fan, starbucks, lottery tickets, snacks, the movie theater, Target..) have made up for that.
My decision was a bit different than your daughter's, but I guess I want to emphasize that location was key in my decision. MN is gorgeous, even in February, which is the real test, and Im pretty sure I heard somewhere that St Paul gets 300+ days of sun a year as well. Boston had the appeal of a BIG CITY but the weather in Boston is :( :( and my friends at school there told me I wouldn't like the lack of community cohesion and park space. </p>
<p>I also should mention, that in my time here I have found every professor Ive had to be extrememly accommodating of athletics, letting me take tests early/late, giving extensions on papers and meeting with me to review the material for classes I missed. I don't know anything about that situation at Whitman, but it has been a very big plus to my experience here. </p>
<p>Im not sure that answers the question, but I can try again if you want :)</p>
<p>Macstudent and oboe, a huge thank you to both of you. You both wrote such informative, comprehensive and thoughtful responses. If the two of you are representative of the writing and communcation skills developed at Mac, I'm impressed. Reading your posts truly expanded our knowledge of life at Mac, and will serve to help my daughter make an informed choice. I already thanked you on the Whitman site russdelabuss, but thanks again!</p>
<p>What a strange post to come accross...last week, I was in the same position, debating between Whitman and Macalester. At the last minute my dad sent off e-mails to both schools, asking them to persuade him in their favor. The result: All the people we contacted at Whitman (except for one counselor who simply wrote "Of course Whitman's the best choice") recommended Macalester over their own school. With that information and my own research, here are my reasons for choosing Macalester (though, of course, I have no idea if I made the right choice yet):</p>
<p>1) Diversity
Coming from the NW, I feared that the students at Whitman would be very similar, very regional and undiverse. In contrast, the international student body at Macalester and the sudents from a variety of locations really excites me. Around 1:00am last week, I realized that this was a deciding factor for me and that, since a lot of my college experience will probably involve other students, I had to choose the school with the student body I'd prefer. Plus, compared to the students I met at Whitman, Macalester students had much more of an "I'm going to change the world some day" attitude.</p>
<p>2) Reputation
I don't know what your daughter is interested in, but Whitman couldn't compete with Macalester for its International Studies program. Even if that's not something she wants to major in, the international focus is much greater than at Whitman.</p>
<p>3) Location
I tried to like Walla Walla. I really did. But with such an inaccessible airport and so many few resources than St. Paul/Minneapolis that it hardly seems worth mentioning, Macalester's location won hands down.</p>
<p>Of course, my decision was all based on research and intuition...having not actually been a student at Macalester yet, that's all I have to go on. But I know that since I woke up last week and decided to accept Macalester, I've never felt more confident about my college decision (and that's even after receiving rejection letters and thinking nothing would ever work out for me. Surprisingly, I think the rejection letters might have been a blessing in disguise, as they let me really consider Macalester)</p>
<p>Jamien, that is quite a coincidence. You two could have been helpful to each other last week. My daughter came to the same conclusion as you did, with intl. studies and political science in mind also. You were both lucky to have such good college choices to agonize over! Thanks for writing about how you came to your conclusion, my daughter had just mailed her decision Sat. night and reading your post Sunday morning was pretty interesting.</p>
<p>yay! !</p>