<p>I'm a rising senior interested in Macalester as a potential match, but I'm concerned about two main things: racial diversity and course selection. </p>
<p>As for the former, I'm black and I've grown up primarily in D.C. in a very black community. I've gone to predominantly white schools (and have had no trouble with my minority status) and I have friends all across the color spectrum, so fitting in is not my concern, but being able to find a community of black students is. I've grown accustomed to attending a school where I'm in the vast majority, so I know that I need at least few people around me of the same racial background who I can relate to on those terms. </p>
<p>Though the black student population at Macalester is small (4%), do black students find the kind of comraderie amongst themselves that I'm looking for? And do they find making friends with and interacting with the rest of the Macalester community is enjoyable and easy?</p>
<p>Second, I'm under no illusions that the course selection at Macalester will be as wide anf far-reaching as that at a large university. I don't mind that, necessarily. I wish to major in history, French, and/or international studies (only French is a non-negotiable). From what I can tell, the French program will meet my needs, but I'm not too sure about the other two. Do majors find that they have more than enough options to choose from, or do they get bored with what they find to be a minimul course selection???</p>
<p>Please and thank you!</p>
<p>My daughter, a rising sophomore at Mac, is considering an International Studies major. Your combined interests in French, history, and IS would work well as the IS major requires competency in a foreign language and a five course focus in “a single disciplinary department in the humanities or social sciences” (which of course includes history) along with the other requirements in what is a fourteen course major. As the major is “highly configurable” (in the words of the course catalog) and draws on courses from other departments you would have a lot of choices. I hope that this, at least in part, answers your question.</p>
<p>We are white so I won’t presume to attempt to answer your question about Mac’s community of black students.</p>
<p>^Rising freshman here. I will second this poster’s perception of IS, I know for a fact that it’s one of the most popular majors at Macalester and a great, great program. I’m also white so I can’t really fully answer your racial diversity question, but I do know that Macalester is one of the top ten schools in the country for race-class interaction according to the Princeton Review surveys. And from what I say during my visit this was true, a lot of mixed race tables of kids, though I know this is only an impression and doesn’t mean much.</p>
<p>As for course selection they have about 850 courses a year I believe, and their majors seemed to have a pretty wide variety of courses/tracks of study to fill requirements.</p>
<p>Thank you both! I’m going to visit Mac’s website today and look the into the IS major more fully. :)</p>
<p>daydream, I think your best shot at getting an informed opinion on black students at Mac is to contact the Multicultural Life staff ([Macalester</a> College Multicultrual Life Staff](<a href=“http://www.macalester.edu/multiculturalism/staff.html]Macalester”>http://www.macalester.edu/multiculturalism/staff.html)) and ask them to put you in contact with one or more students who can give you a first hand account of their own experience.</p>
<p>FYI, while Mac is 4% AA, the city of St. Paul is 14% AA. Overall the state of MN is also 4% AA.</p>
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<p>Minnesota is a funny place. Almost all the blacks in the state -and it is a large state geograhically speaking - live in the Twin Cities metropolitan area (Minneapolis, St. Paul, and their surrounding suburbs). Go 40 miles outside central Minneapolis or St. Paul, in any direction, and you may never see a black person. </p>
<p>The state is more diverse than Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine, but that’s only because of the two largest cities. It’s extremely white up north round Moorhead, MN and its “twin” city, Fargo, ND and points north of there. I walked into a mall up there once and not only did people stare at me, but another black guy walked in while I was standing around waiting for my wife and kids to finish shopping. This guy did a double take when he saw me. He literally RAN up to me smiling and shook my hand. He was a total stranger. He lived up there, and admitted that he was so shocked and happy to see another black guy that he couldn’t resist introducing himself. He looked at me like I was Jesus. Kinda sad, kinda funny too, but a true story.</p>
<p>My son mentioned that a fair number of the black students are from Africa and are not African American. That fact adds another dimension to your question.</p>