<p>Macalester seems like a great school for me--except I know next to nothing about St. Paul and Minneapolis. One of the most important things for me when I go to college is I want to be in a big exciting--I come from Nowhereville, Hawaii. </p>
<p>What do people think is the best thing about the Twin Cities? The worst thing?</p>
<p>Best thing? A million opprotunities.</p>
<p>Worst thing? Cold weather.</p>
<p>There are more internships here than you could ever research, let alone take advantage of. Do you want to study tibetan music, or liberation theology in the context of immigration policy, or campaign for universal health care? Its all possible here. There are great museums, theatres, concert halls, restaurants of every nationality and ethnic group you could hope for, vibrant communities of Hmung, Tibetan, Latin@ immigrants. Public transportation, while sometimes slow, is incredibly accessible and affordable. Also, St. Paul is the state capital, which means incredible opprotunities for internships, political activism, and rallys. There are 24-hr diners, public art displays, sports teams....everything you could ever want in a city :)</p>
<p>When you say cold weather, how cold do you mean? Will I be able to survive, having lived sixteen years in nothing colder than about 60 degrees?</p>
<p>(Mind you, one of my other top schools is McGill, in Montreal, so I guess I'm a glutton for punishment.)</p>
<p>How's the art scene? I might want to be an Art History major.</p>
<p>Our largest international student group is Jamaican. If they can handle it, so can you :)</p>
<p>(real answer: it will, very occasionally, get below -20F. its rare, and you just learn to bundle up.)</p>
<p>Art scene I don't know too much about. We have the Walker, which is very well known, and I have a lot of friends that do art crawls all the time, but I can't help you out more than that, sorry.</p>
<p>The art scene is good. There are two art museums in Minneapolis that are quite good (the walker and MIA, which you can check out at <a href="http://www.walkerart.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.walkerart.org</a> and <a href="http://www.artsmia.org)%5B/url%5D">http://www.artsmia.org)</a>, and the Twin Cities in general are strong in the arts (we have the second largest number of theatre seats per capita in the U.S. after New York City). That said, I don't think the art history department at Macalester is that great. I'm taking a class in it right now and love it, and I think it'd be all right if you major in something else as well, but it's just not big enough to have it be the center of your four years here. You can send me a message if you have more questions about that.
I'd never lived in a place with snow before coming here, and I've totally embraced the winters. The first year gets hard around March because you'll think it'll never end, but then April comes and you discover that it does, and after your freshman year it's not bad. You'll buy a coat, have some snowball fights with friends, and live your life inside buildings rather than outside. The winters are cold but sunny, which is nice because newer buildings (particularly the campus center) have a lot of sky lights, so you have sunlight even when it's cold out. And for better or worse, global warming has made the winters much more mild.</p>
<p>My favorite thing about the Twin Cities: the coffee shops. There are fantastic coffee shops and cafes here, and all have a different sort of atmosphere. I love discovering different places and spending all day in my favorite ones.
My least favorite thing: that everything closes so early. Most movie theatres don't even have a midnight movie, and the three coffee shops next to campus close at 11 on weekdays. There's a place opening up next month right by campus that'll be open later though, so that'll fill a big void.</p>
<p>I don't know where you're from, but I'm perpetually surprised by how much later things are open here than in Cleveland. I guess it depends on where you come from.</p>
<p>I'm with you, EconMajor. Everything closes at 5:30 here, restaurants at 7. No joke!</p>
<p>I love the weather..
What I don't like: public transportation takes about 3-4X the time that driving takes.</p>
<p>although that's true in a lot of cities. At least in the Twin Cities, its fairly reliable.</p>
<p>i live in saint paul. the area around macalester is a lot of fun. there are a lot of coffee shops and fun independent stores. st paul doesnt really have a night life, but minneapolis does.</p>