<p>Hey to all you Mac hopefuls...though I am merely a lowly junior right now, I've heard some great things about Mac, namely the intellectual atmosphere, and so am interested. Can anyone tell me how the philosophy department is at Macalester? I'm going to be majoring in philosophy, and then hopefully going on to med school...so how are the philosophy and science departments? Also, how are the dorms there? I'd appreciate any feedback...thanks!</p>
<p>I'm actually interested in this too-- and since I'm applying to Macalester I better have a good idea about what's going on right? :P Is the study abroad really as good as I've heard as well? Study abroad is big on my list of things a university must be friendly with...</p>
<p>Reality, I had similar questions when applying for college, so I thought I would help you out.</p>
<p>I graduated from Mac in 2004 and am now in my 2nd year of medical school. I had an awesome experience in every part of college, from the social stuff to my academics. Some specifics:</p>
<p>Philosophy: Although i was a bio major, I took Ethics as my first year course (you live on the same 2 floors as everyone in this class your first year and have dinner at your prof's house and stuff). I had Henry West, who I found to be excellent and accessible. Hes written mostly on utilitarianism, and I remember that he was really into John Stuart Mill. The philosophy department is good and has some great people, especially Gunderson (see: <a href="http://www.macalester.edu/philosophy/faculty.html)%5B/url%5D">http://www.macalester.edu/philosophy/faculty.html)</a>. Also, I had several friends that majored in Religious Studies and are now in top grad schools for that. They loved the department, especially Cal Roetzel and Paula Cooey.</p>
<p>Premed: Id say the average number of grads that immediately apply for med school is around 10 or so. Usually Mac sends at least one student to Harvard or Hopkins every year, a couple to some other top twenty schools, and then the rest to their respective state schools. From my experience, I am better prepared than the vast majority of my medical school classmates. The bio curriculum is a lot of experiment/mock grant writing and essay exams, so I felt that I had a good background, especially in Molec Bio. O-chem, which is still painfully hard, is amazingly well taught with the emphasis on collaborative problem sets and an excellent professor (Ronald Brisbois). The advising and attention are commensurate with the size of school, and I had excellent letters of recommendation. </p>
<p>Dorms: 1st year dorms stink, but they make you tough. A lot of people live on campus all 4 years, and all of the junior and senior dorms are suites w/ private bedrooms and common rooms. Overall, the dorms are not awesome, but theyre fine and 1st year. </p>
<p>Study abroad: I had a great experience abroad. I spent my Junior fall abroad and am proof that you can study abroad, do premed, and still take random awesome classes. </p>
<p>Hope this helped. Message me if you have questions.</p>
<p>MACman: Thanks so much for all the information! It really did help to give me a better inside-look on the Mac-world. I'll be sure to message you if I have any more questions!</p>
<p>Hey, sorry I'm so late in responding. Thanks a bunch for the info!</p>