Thank you @georgecarlin and @UNYMom!
Can you speak much on the LGBT presence around campus?
Hello,
I recommend checking out this link: https://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/lgbtq/
It will give more information than I could!
Best,
Andy
@Raelte I know Mac is very high in the list of LGBT-friendly schools. D is in the accepted students FB group and it’s common for people to share their preferred pronouns when introducing themselves. We also happened to be visiting in National Coming Out Day in October and there was a table outside the student center handing out free buttons and promoting events.
Hello, Mac is my first choice but I don’t think my stats would get me there. I have very low SATs and an okay GPA. Any advice on how to deal with rejection ??
Hello! How big is Macalester’s CS program? Do you know some CS majors?
@cody27, best way to deal with rejection is to have backup schools that you wouldn’t mind going to. As a Mac alum, I’ll say that Skidmore, Connecticut College, and the College of Wooster are all schools we toured as parents that struck us as being places where you could get a Macalester-like experience, but which were easier to get into. (Wooster in particular seems like a bit of a well-kept secret: my wife sat in on a class there with our son and from what she described, the teaching was absolutely Macalester level… at least in that showcase class.)
A few questions for you -
Can you speak to housing options for upperclassmen? If I read the website correctly, housing is only promised for two years.
Does most of the social life happen off campus? I’m wondering if that means students need to budget for spending money for entertainment.
Are there parks or trails nearby for running?
I get the feeling that the student body overall isn’t very sporty. 50% of the kids play intramurals but that’s a lot less than some other LACs we are considering. Am I correct in guessing that the vibe isn’t very sporty?
Thanks for any insight!
Housing is one of the few downsides of Macalester. When my daughter applied, they gave us stats of something like 70% of juniors and seniors live on campus, but that seems exaggerated to me now that my daughter is there. She is only a sophmore, but pretty much every older student she has met this year and last year lived off campus unless they were RAs or in specialty housing. It seems like most students have apartments nearby, though, and lots of social life still happens on campus for juniors and seniors.
The social life that happens off campus seems to be more small group outings rather than parties and other big social events. The location is fantastic, and small groups of kids will go to museums, sporting events, symphony (some free nights for students!), etc. The school also sponsors off campus events, such as apple picking, but they can fill up quickly. There are school sponsored parties and dances, but I don’t know much about them since they are not my daughter’s thing.
My daughter runs on the campus and the nearby city streets. There are some lovely residential neighborhoods adjacent to campus. There may also be trails, but I am not aware of them. There are tons of bike paths nearby, if your kid is into that.
The school seems fairly sporty to me, but my kids’ high school is last in almost every sport, so I am not a good person to judge! Spectator sports are not much of at thing at Mac, but it seems like there are lots of students on sports teams or just playing sports casually.
@UNYMom Thanks. Macalester is staying on S19’s list for now. All of the other schools he’s considering have housing for all four years for students and would be considered more rural or suburban. As a parent, I just prefer that he has housing and that most kids (if not all) stay on campus. He will be in an apartment, having to cook for himself, etc., soon enough. I see drama around finding roommates and paying bills. Who knows. I could be wrong…
I think he prefers the “bubble” scenario as he has all of his life to go live in a city, but he thought St. Paul looked fun for sure.
@homerdog the campus is small enough that I think a lot of kids feel good getting off of it after a couple of years. The neighborhoods around campus stretch on for blocks and blocks with a lot of relatively affordable rentals. And as for walking, it’s easy to walk down Summit past St. Thomas and down to the Mississippi, where you can hang out on rock ledges. Other than that it’s probably taking some form of transportation to get to one of the lakes in the city.
@homerdog When we visited, my daughter and I took a pleasant stroll down Summit Blvd to the Mississippi where we saw a network of biking/running/walking trails. Locals were walking, jogging, and biking up and down Summit. It felt comfortable and friendly. Mac also has a sizable indoor track in their gym for inclement weather - I remember lots of glass and natural light.