Hey,
I graduated from Macalester last May with a foreign language degree. It's a great school! At times, I've wished that my school had a "bigger" name to it, but trust me, all the people in the right places know it. I actually got into a higher-ranked school (Grinnell), but opted for Mac because it was in an urban area.
I can't compare it to the other schools you mentioned since I didn't apply/go there, but let me tell you what I liked and disliked about Macalester.
Good things:
1) Small class size, of course. I've made great friends in my classes, I am still friends with some of my profs (as in, we e-mail weekly). Friendwise, since there's a lot of opportunity for presentations and other group work and since the classes are more interactive than lecture-based, you get lots of opportunities to talk to people.
Anecdotally, my college advisor in HS recommended I apply to Macalester because all my friends in HS were internationals....and now all of my close Mac friends are at least 1st generation American. Kind of ironic. However, I went to a US high school (don't know about you) and that extra year probably helped me adjust faster and thus didn't make me isolate myself from the domestic students as much as some other intl students do.
Professor-wise, a small class means that you will ALWAYS be able to talk to your prof if you're having difficulties or simply have an interest in the subject area. Never ONCE did I not get an opportunity to talk to a prof during office hours. They really make themselves available, with the exception of some Economics guys (I was in Econ for 2 years before I switched...hated it).
I can tell you how great it is because I took a few courses at large universities and the difference was DRASTIC and not for the better.
2) Dorms and dorm living. At Macalester, you are required to live in the dorms for the first 2 years, no matter where you come from - even if your parents live in St. Paul. Some locals hate it, but honestly, I made lots of good friends living in the dorms. It REALLY helps to build a tight community. The dorms themselves (with the exception of one, where your humble servant resided for one semester
) are very modern and pretty comfortable. I don't know if you're male or female, but they have both coed and single sex floors for first years, which can be helpful if you are more traditional and need some adjustment.
3) Food. Dorm living requires you to be on the meal plan. It can get old pretty quickly, but I do have to say, Macalester has a GREAT cafeteria. There are lots of healthy choices, ethnic foods of all kinds (from Vietnamese to Norwegian), and the cafeteria itself is quite nice and clean. I've never been to a cafeteria better than Bon Appetit at Mac.
4) Foreign language/cultural interest housing. I lived in the Japan House for one semester (I studied Japanese) and a friend lived in the Hebrew House (she's Jewish). There are other "houses" as well, the aim being to bring people of a common culture/common interest in a particular culture/language together. You have to submit specific applications for it, but few people get rejected.
5) Community service. Macalester has TONS of community service options. If you check out the Princeton Review rankings, it's in the top 20 (if not 10) for community service engagement. I amassed a huge number of volunteering experiences there. The community service has a huge inventory of local organizations, all of which are very familiar with Mac students and are happy to offer meaningful opportunities. You're bound to find smth you like.There are also work-study programs where you do non-profit work instead of on-campus employment to earn your award. These require specific applications and are rather competitive, but also very rewarding.
6) Connections. As I said, Mac maybe small and not super well-known, but its grads go on to get jobs at major places. In my Econ program, 14 out of 22 people matched into top investment banks in NYC, San Fran, and the like, and only 2 ended up with run-of-the-mill jobs.
7) Financial aid. Granted, this was back in the need-blind days (2002 entry for me), but when I only got a $4,000 scholarship + work-study from Mac and e-mailed them to say I can't afford to come, I got an e-mail saying "how much should we give you in order for you to come to Macalester?" I almost **** my pants.
I was modest though, and settled for 11K a year...not bad. Most schools don't give ANY aid to internationals.
Also, when I was having some financial problems in my 4th year, the Fin Aid staff was VERY helpful in finding very good loans for me. As you may know, it's nearly impossible for intl students to get loans, but I barely had to lift a finger to get one at Mac.
And now, the things that bothered me about Macalester.
1) Race drama. Macalester (like any LAC) is obsessed with getting as many people of color as possible. Here's my White point of view: The liberal brainwashing gets to a point where you simply feel uncomfortable around your fellow students of color because there's constant psychological pressure to feel somehow inferior and guilty. It's not at all uncommon to hear a person of color (INCLUDING staff
) to make public statements such as "there are too many white people at this college." Ironic, considering this is Minnesota and Mac has a greater %age of people of color than the state. You can imagine the hoopla that'd ensue if a White person said smth like "There are too many Black people at this college."
2) Religion. I'm an atheist, but even I often felt uncomfortable with the tacky public jabs at Christianity (of course, Christianity only, because attacks on other religions suggest you don't like people of color, and that's a BIGGG booboo at Macalester as mentioned above). I personally found cartoons of Jesus hanging around in bed with prostitutes as featured in the school newspaper very offensive, and as I said, I'm not even religious, let alone Christian. The WASP bashing gets really old, especially at a college that preaches tolerance toward every other single group of people.
3) On the same note, excessive liberalism. I also consider myself to be liberal (you better be, at Macalester). However, I feel like some (very vocal, too) people there confused liberalism with close-mindedness towards people with different political views. I'm all for educated political dialogue, but a lot of people just get caught up in "I hate Bush" and "Republicans should go to hell" crap. I had one openly Republican friend who often felt ostracized and uncomfortable on campus, and I found it quite sad that she had to be subjected to this type of treatment at a supposedly tolerant college. If you find yourself to be on the conservative side (or sometimes, even on the simply reasonable side), it's not uncommon to see people jeer at you if you speak up in class. As I said, I consider myself to be liberal, and I still found some of my "liberal" classmates to be nothing but close-minded snobs. However, many LACs are like that.
So, there you go! Hope it helps you make a decision.
