Colorful flags from 100 countries and Native American tribal nations hang above the Cafe Mac dining hall, representing the nationalities of members of the student body. Some 14 percent of students come to Macalester College from abroad.
On the Great Lawn outside Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel, the blue and white banner of the United Nations has been flying for more than six decades as a reminder to students, faculty and visitors that internationalism and multiculturalism are core components of the college’s mission. Mac students must complete one course with an international focus and another reflecting U.S. multiculturalism, and some 60 percent of the student body “studies away” elsewhere in the U.S. or abroad.
Macalester’s location in St. Paul and proximity to Minneapolis — the downtown areas of both are only 10 minutes or so from campus — set it apart from many other liberal arts colleges. The setting doesn’t feel urban, though, with its green lawns — when they’re not covered with snow — and surrounding residential streets.
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The Twin Cities area provides students ample opportunity to gain real-world experience and to enjoy a wide range of cultural offerings. Undergrads intern at places like the Minnesota House of Representatives, publisher Graywolf Press, and other businesses and nonprofits.
“Macalester is centered in a really great area,” says Julia Gay, a senior from Cleveland Heights, Ohio, pursuing an American studies major and a minor in theater. Her junior year work-study job involved about 10 hours a week in the St. Paul Public Schools doing theater workshops and performances with students. “It’s crazy,” she says, not to “take advantage of all these opportunities.”
Civic engagement is another core value, and more than 90 percent of Mac’s roughly 2,000 students get involved in the community through service, applied research or in other ways.
“We educate people to think about their civic responsibility, whether it’s in their local community or national community or global community,” says Macalester President Brian Rosenberg.
The college offers around 60 courses with a civic engagement component, such as Economics of Poverty in the U.S., in which students must work three hours a week with a nonprofit that provides aid to people who are struggling.
To enhance the transition to college life, all first-year students take a seminar capped at 16 students from an instructor who becomes their initial academic adviser, such as Ethics and the Internet or Tenors in Togas: Greek and Roman Myth in Opera.
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With a 10-to-1 student-faculty ratio, Macalester is the kind of place where professors quickly notice if a student misses class and will reach out, and where faculty members host dinners for students from time to time. (An endowed fund supports these gatherings.) Professors “care about you in a way that’s shocking,” says junior political science major Farah AlHaddad, who is from Syria.
First- and second-year students are required to live on campus, and in all, about two-thirds of the student body resides in university dorms, apartments and language or theme houses like the Veggie Co-op, which is located under the bleachers of the football stadium. The college fields 21 Division III varsity teams known as the Scots.
In a further nod to the college’s heritage, which stems from its founding by a Presbyterian minister as well as the Scottish Presbyterian ancestry of early college presidents and Macalester’s benefactor and namesake, Mac offers free bagpipe lessons to interested students. These instruments regularly sound during special occasions.
“When professors get tenure, they play the bagpipes into their office or whatever class they’re in to announce it,” says Ian Lock of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, a junior biology major. Another fun tradition: Founders Day pushball, in which students, faculty and staff brave the March elements in a contest that involves maneuvering a giant inflatable ball across the snowy Great Lawn.
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This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Colleges 2016” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Minnesota College Road Trip: Macalester College originally appeared on usnews.com
