<p>This question is simple enough: what are some of the most respected (i.e. best) departments at Mac? I've heard that the chemistry department along with Econ and IR are well known. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>IR definitely.</p>
<p>What else?</p>
<p>International Studies, Economics, Chemistry, and Biology are the most well known departments and among the best in the country. All of the other social sciences, such as Political Science and Anthropology, are also very good.</p>
<p>How is the math dept? My D. is interested in Mac.</p>
<p>The math department is good. It's large and well established. I wouldn't say it's anything spectacular, but that may be my bias because I'm not interested in math. People are generally happy with math and say they're getting a great education out of it, even though it's not what Mac is generally known for.</p>
<p>Can anyone offer anything else? Are there any ratings/statistics for grad school placement that anyone has?</p>
<p>I'm currently a Macalester sophomore and an International Studies and Political Science double major, and have been very happy with both departments. I would agree with the previous sentiments that the International Studies department is one of the best in the country. I don't have exact numbers, but from my work with the department, I know that a large number of IS graduates eventually continue on to some of the most competitive and top-tier graduate schools in International Affairs and Law. In the past few years, the department has sent students to Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Tufts University, The School of Advanced International Studies at John's Hopkins, and The School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia. I'm not sure about the grad school placements for other departments, but Macalester in general is pretty top-notch. Hope this helps! ~J.</p>
<p>have you heard anything good/bad about the history dept.?</p>
<p>I haven't heard anything bad about the history department actually. I'm not really involved with it, but I have heard really great things about several of the faculty from the department. In particular, Peter Rachleff is incredibly well known all over the country for his labor history focus, and Emily and Norm Rosenberg are also good...Paul Solon is another name that I know by reputation at least, though I've never had a course with him. Just from the good things I've heard about the professors I think the department is relatively strong as well.</p>
<p>I am not a huge fan of the history department, there are not a ton of classes offered and I don't fancy the ones that are. I feel like the history department is one of the weaker and more limited departments.</p>
<p>Coming into Macalester I was initially turned off by the history department, but now I'm starting to like it. I took a course called 'American International Relations Since 1940' in it and loved it. It's a large department with a lot of professors who've been at Macalester for decades. It's one of the departments on campus that's developed grade inflation, so people in departments with lower GPA's (like chem, bio, IS, and econ) tend to not take it as seriously, but it's big enough that you can do a lot with it.</p>
<p>I just realized I didn't answer your question Lotus123. Mac is famously bad at keeping track of grad school admission rates overall, which is a shame because graduates from here do very well. I know our med school appliation rate is high because our chemistry and biology departments are good and pre-med students generally get internships at hospitals in the Twin Cities, which is an unusual resource.
When I was a senior in high school, before I'd even applied to Macalester, our college counselor passed out the following article to everyone in my grade. Mac is mentioned in the fourth paragraph. If you want to pay for a subscription, I'm sure you could look up the original article on the wsj website:
<a href="http://www.legaled.com/feeder.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.legaled.com/feeder.htm</a>
Hope that helps.</p>
<p>thanks to all!</p>
<p>Does anyone know a college ranking by major departments?</p>
<p>Sorry for asking this kind of question, but I just want to take a look before deciding on where to go.</p>
<p>UWC-USA</p>
<p>I'm confused as to what you're asking...do you want to know which are the most popular within the college, or where our departments compare to other schools?</p>
<p>Departments that are respected by the academic community. I.e. does Dr. So-and-so at Where-ever University think Macalester's IR department is good. You know, graduate school admins, professors at other colleges (or Mac), etc.</p>
<p>CMC ranked our Econ Dept as 7th among LACs in terms of research produced by its faculty. I don't know much about other departments, I'd honestly suggest flipping through a college guide as that is probably your best bet in terms of overall opinions.</p>
<p>Or, alternately, if theres a specific department you're interested in, I'd suggest searching Mac's website to see what info they've got.</p>
<p>Macalester is known for its internationalism, so International Studies is very well known. People from that department, and most of the social sciences and sciences, tend to go to top grad schools (I don't know as much about the humanities one way or another). I guess I should add that that's only if they work hard; at every college there are students who get there and are content to just hang out for four years. Those types of people don't get into Harvard Law, no matter where they went for undergrad.
Mac doesn't have the same name recognition with the general public as a lot of other first tier schools because it doesn't emphasize sports and it's in the Midwest. But generally I've found, and heard that others find, that anyone who should know about Mac (grad schools, employers, other schools) does.
Interestingly, Mac has an unusually high number of prof kids as students. So professors from other schools like us enough to send their children here.</p>
<p>What about the philosophy department?</p>