Whitman, Grinnell, Macalester or Carleton for runner/STEM major?

College Search & Selection
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Hi,
Son-senior in HS- planning a STEM/premed major for now. He also wants to run on a D3 XC team. He is deciding between Whitman, Carleton, Macalester and Grinnell, and he’d be able to be on the cross country/track teams at all 4.

He has been offered a big academic scholarship at Whitman, slightly smaller ones at both Mac and Grinnell, and zero at Carleton. He visited Whitman and seems like an all around great fit. Trying to figure out if I can get him to the others for visits but with COVID nothing is certain.

We are open to any advice about choosing between these four schools! We like them all, know Carleton is “ranked” the highest, but how different is it compared to the others? (ie Is it worth paying full price?)

Thinking forward to possible med school applications (crazy) does going to one school make it easier/harder to get in compared to the others?

I know this is an impossible Q to answer! Thanks to anyone who decides to try.

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Congrats momofyear. Your son has four great choices, which is quite an accomplishment particularly in this tough college admissions year. My son will be a first year next year at grinnell, running XC, and is planning on studying biochem, so if your son ends up at grinnell I’m sure they will run into each other.

There are lots of threads on college confidential comparing Grinnell, Carleton, and Macalester that are very helpful. A gross simplification readers digest version of those is they are all great schools and, as between those three, pick the one that sounds like it is the best fit (but read through those to get a good feel for the schools).

I thought Carleton would have been a good fit for my son, just like Grinnell, but he rejected it out of hand because he did not care for the trimester system that Carleton uses.

If it were me, i would save money for med school and select one of the three schools that offer money over Carleton full pay. Carleton is great, but so are the others, particularly with money with me school in the future.

Hope to see your son at grinnell though. :grinning:

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A few things to consider for pre-meds:

  1. Medical school is very expensive ($400k now, probably more when he graduates college), and most medical school admits get only one admission out of dozens of applications (i.e. no choosing a less expensive medical school). Lower cost undergraduate may leave more money to pay for medical school for less debt after medical school graduation. Note that the medical school application process can cost many thousands of dollars, including short notice travel to medical school interviews.
  2. How accessible are the usual expected pre-med extracurriculars (e.g. volunteering or paid work in patient settings and helping the disadvantaged / underserved) to each college?
  3. Many colleges have a pre-med committee that assesses each pre-med’s chances and decides whether to support the pre-med in medical school applications. Generally, the committee will only support the pre-med with a committee letter (effectively required if the college has a pre-med committee) if the pre-med’s chances are good; otherwise, it will tell the pre-med that the chances are low and that the pre-med should switch to alternate plans. This can be construed as “weeding out”, but the “weeded out” pre-meds are then spared the expensive and stressful medical school application process that would likely have been futile for them.

(You may want to change the title to say “pre-med” instead of “STEM major” to be more specific. Note that pre-meds can do any major, as long as they take the pre-med courses as well if not included in their majors.)

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I wouldn’t overlook Whitman! My son had toured some top New England LAC’s, and he had his eye on Hamilton (never got to visit). He also had his eye on Macalaster and St. Olaf (Also didn’t get to visit). He did, however, get to visit Whitman last fall, and he was so impressed with the campus, the town, the sense of community he felt there (even during Covid) that he applied early and will be attending next fall. He’s an excellent student who wants an intellectual environment, and he feels that Whitman will provide the level of academics he’s looking for.

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Thank you! Agree- LOVE Whitman.

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Thank you!! (Good suggestion. Trying to find the edit button!)

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The edit button is a pencil in the row of buttons like a smiley face, heart, link, flag, and bookmark.

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As an aspect to think about, Carleton, Grinnell and Whitman each represent the most selective colleges (of any type) in their respective states.

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Wow—Great choices. How important is XC to your son? Carleton has the strongest mens program of the group. Carleton and Mac are in the MIAC conference which benefits from having closely clustered colleges, meaning limited roadtrips away from campus, fewer missed classes, etc. Mac is the only one in an urban environment, if that is important. Grinnell would be most rural. Our pediatrician’s son is pre-med and a student-athlete at Grinnell and is very happy with his experience there. As mentioned above, the trimester system and academic calendar is a unique feature at Carleton—there are pros and cons. All 4 schools known as strong LACs for science. If you are not able to visit the midwest schools, check out admission videos on their youtube channels/websites. Good luck and please keep us posted on the decision.

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Do not underestimate the opportunities conferred by being in a major metropolitan area. Going to Macalester will offer more research, internship, and cross-enrollment options than the other three schools - by a landslide.

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I’m on the Grinnell waitlist, so I say anywhere but there :sweat_smile: joking! sort of… :wink: but congratulations!! all really great options. I’ve recently been reviewing Scott Galloway’s value vs. vulnerability rankings. I’d like to think the schools he categorizes under “perish” will be fine because all of the small LACs I’m interested in are in that category (and there’s no way that many schools will “perish”), but something interesting to look at

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hi! congratulations to your son!

personally, i feel like this should come down to whitman vs. grinnell, and not just because i’m a student at the latter, lol. for carleton, i just don’t think paying full price is worth it, especially if he wants to go to medical school. for the other three, if he’s especially interested in the sciences, grinnell is the strongest, which is why i chose it over macalester. (however, i’m looking at it from an academics-centered viewpoint. if he absolutely hates small-town environments and loves urban environments, that could change things.)

students at grinnell are guided through the process of fulfilling med school requirements by their faculty advisor(s) who help them keep track of the classes they need to take. you can find them here.

also, with grinnell’s open curriculum, he has more variety in what he can pursue. if he decided to not pursue pre-med, he has the advantage of being able to take classes in areas he’s actually interested in instead of having to worry about satisfying graduation requirements. if he’s a STEM-centered person, grinnell allows for him to be pretty STEM-focused if chooses to be.

furthermore, grinnell is renowned for placing students in elite graduate schools/graduate school programs, if that’s anything for consideration, and the college’s $2B endowment means helping to fund unpaid internships, paying for travel for interviews for graduate school, and subsidizing student research during the academic year and summer. our cross country team ain’t too shabby either, hahaha. grinnell is a small town, yes, but luckily, the diversity of the student body helps to make up for the homogeneity of the town.

whitman is a fantastic college, a grossly underrated one at that, and i do think you should heavily consider it. if finances are an issue, i would contact the financial aid office at grinnell to see if they could bump up his academic scholarship amount to help makes things less expensive.

congratulations again! he has super exciting options.

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I don’t think Carleton is worth paying full freight compared to Whitman, Grinnell, and Macalester.
So, the big difference will be staying in the PNW v. going to another region in the US, small town v. major city: any expressed preference?

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If your are seriously considering PreMed, look up Muhlenberg College. A small liberal arts college, but this school beats many prestigious colleges for sending its students to many Medical schools.

Some people really love this school, but not much diversity.

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Op’ s child is a senior who has already been admitted to all 4.

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I always think for pre-med students that they should pick the best school they can still get straight As at, since GPA is SOOO important for Med School admissions. It’s really important for medical schools for you to excel and be at the top of the class (top 25% or even top 10%) Which of these four do you think he could excel MOST at?

And, of course, as mentioned above, Med School is expensive, maybe save some money now?

That said, all of these are great schools, all have great science programs. All have good medical school placement rates, although not all of them have a number I can find. Carleton claims an 82% acceptance rate into medical school, Macalester 80%, Grinnell 66%. I can’t find the number for Whitman.

Each of these colleges also has something distinctive. Macalester stands out for being an urban school. All the others are in small towns, Grinnell the smallest at 9000 people and Walla Walla the largest at 30,000 people. Grinnell has the largest endowment and the most flexible curriculum. Whitman might be the most collaborative and least competitive. Whitman has the BBME major (Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Molecular Biology). Carleton has a Neuroscience degree. Macalester being urban has more access for shadowing opportunities. (How much of that are you going to find in Grinnell, Iowa?) Whitman may be the only one without a language requirement (although every doctor should probably know Spanish these days).

So, I didn’t answer your question, but maybe gave you more to think about?

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For those interested, this links to the original source, which includes a quadrant-style chart: USS University | No Mercy / No Malice.

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DS is a sophomore STEM major at Carleton. It’s a fabulous place and he loves it, especially his professors, but I can’t imagine Whitman is all that different. If money is important, that Whitman offer seems very tempting.
One other factor - Carleton has a an 800 acre arboretum next to campus with wide, soft trails to run on. It is one of the best cross country training facilities in the country regardless of division. Those soft (wood chip) trails prevent a lot of injuries.

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@momoftheyear
What school did your S decide on?
My D is considering the same schools and also wants to be a pre-med major and an athlete. We haven’t visited any of the campuses yet but are making plans for spring break in April.

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Hi! He’s at Carleton, freezing his butt off and loving it, pre med and track/XC team. He’s happy. Lmk if you want to talk about those choices- I think they are all wonderful.

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