<p>S just received an NROTC scholarship to Macalester (which is a cross-town affiliate of the unit at UM-Twin Cities). He's a little worried about the perception of ROTC on the liberal Macalester campus. Does anyone have any insight?</p>
<p>Well, personally, being a 2013 student of Macalester (I just recently got accepted), your son’s interest in the ROTC does not bother me in an adverse way! </p>
<p>I think that to be truly liberal, you have to accept everyone for what they choose to do! If Mac is half as tolerant as it says it is, your son should fare quite nicely at Mac :]</p>
<p>I (possible Mac 2013, depending on how much money they give me) am not really bothered by ROTC. I generally judge people by their personality, not their interests. If he’s a nice kid, regardless of anything else, we’ll probably get along.</p>
<p>You guys sound great. Thanks. Razalman, if it weren’t for the Navy ROTC scholarship, S wouldn’t be able to afford Mac.</p>
<p>Son transferred to Mac and starts NROTC. How does transportation work in the winter up there?</p>
<p>JAMJAF. Has your son joined the University of Minnesota NROTC unit yet? My son is the only NROTC mid on the MAC campus (at least until now). The only way for my son and the mids from St. Thomas down the road to get to the unit on the Minnesota campus is to drive/carpool. My son drives to the U three or four mornings a week for the 6 am labs, PT sessions, and Naval Science classes. He also goes a couple of late afternoons every week because he is on the exhibition drill team. In any case, send me a PM, and we can see if the boys can connect. (Not hard since MAC is so small).</p>
<p>[Metro</a> Transit - Home](<a href=“Page Not Found - Metro Transit”>http://www.metrotransit.org/)
MTC busses run right by the Mac campus (intersection of Snelling and Grand). 6 AM is tough arrival time, but it could be done on busses with a small amount of walking and one transfer. Morning rush hours could be done directly on route 144. Most of the rest of the time can be done in about 45 minutes using route 84 to University Ave and transferring to 16, both frequently running buses. Walking from Mac to University Ave to catch the 16 directly wouldn’t be bad, either. About a mile.</p>
<p><a href=“https://sites.google.com/a/actc-mn.org/actc/bus#TOC-Bus-Routes[/url]”>https://sites.google.com/a/actc-mn.org/actc/bus#TOC-Bus-Routes</a>
They could also consider using the ACTC shuttle busses to get to Augsburg and walk from there. Augsburg is just a few blocks from the U MN-West Bank.</p>
<p>Lol, I think that my son will stick with his car and the 20 minute commute. Getting up at 4:45 am four days a week is hard enough without adding an hour long bus ride each way to the mix. Not enough hours in the day for that and the 20 credits per semester it takes to get through both NROTC and Mac (where the NROTC credits don’t count). </p>
<p>The mids from St. Thomas have always swung by to pick my son up when there is the need. They tend to take care of one another. </p>
<p>In fact, when my son joined the unit, they discouraged him from trying to use public transportation to get from Mac to the U because it just takes too long.</p>
<p>Completely understandable, and a leisurely drive down Summit and up River Road. I was just trying to establish that it could be done by bus.</p>
<p>Biking Mac to U of MN would probably take about 20 minutes, too. That only leaves mid-November to early April problematic. :)</p>