Macalaster is in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I guess you can get picky about how to define urban vs suburban. But GW or NYU or NEU type urban it is not. When you’re on campus you don’t feel like you are in the middle of a big city. Or even a college town.What’s walkable feels suburban, even if it’s with St Paul. I view this as a plus. It has a discrete campus, which many truly urban schools do not. It also feels very white. That was my impression and both DCs (visited once with each). It doesn’t matter how diverse the surrounding area is. Most kids at these colleges are not from the surrounding areas. The reported numbers seem off for Mac, but they have a high international population, so I think they get counted as “international” and not white. Kenyon and Oberlin— also very white. None of these SlACs are attracting racial diversity. |
First— SLACs are largely white. For most, you accept that. Second, Oberlin is very diverse— just not racially. But first gen, low income, religion, sexual orientation and the way they present themselves— and the Con kids vs arts and sciences kids. There are a lot of artsy (like 1/3 to 1/2 in con, creative writing or fine arts) of kids who don’t look like a typical business student. The campus just has a different vibe than Mac because many of the kids are very different from each other and present themselves as such. And third, Mac is not counting international symbionts in the white category they go in a separate international category instead. . And the have a lot of international |
Good decision. I have 2 STEM kids who along the way in REUs and grad school have met a few BM students, but no one from Kenyon (this came up because both strongly considered going to Kenyon). DS's girlfriend went to BM and raves about it - good luck to your DD! |
Large international student numbers at a SLAC should be a red flag. Most colleges top off the class with some full pay foreign students to bring in some extra cash. Colleges all like $$$. But when you start to see 10% or more in an undergrad-oriented school, it's often a sign of trouble. |
Um duh? I think everyone knows that St Paul isn’t as bustling urban of a city as DC, NYC, or Boston. That doesn’t make it a suburb. |
I agree Oberlin has a lot of diversity in other areas but it is not racially diverse at all. So I thought it was weird that Pp said her kids disdained Macalester for being “too white” and then chose Oberlin, which is even whiter. |
No it's not. I just quickly looked and the 2 top SLACS - Williams and Amherst - both have about 10% international students. You're just making stuff up. |
Do you mistakenly believe that most international students are white and are therefore being miscategorized? Macalester’s international students mostly come from Asian countries, then African countries, then South American and middle eastern countries…very few of the intl students there are European and if you haven’t already figured out where I’m going w this: most intl students at Macalester are in fact not white. |
Mac is in St. Paul, but it's in a suburban part of St. Paul. Somewhat similar to AU being in DC, but the AU neighborhood feeling very suburban. |
Yes, but if you're like me and are the parent of a Black child in the US, you look at Mac as 2% African-American. That gets combined with being the metro area that brought the George Floyd murder and still hasn't fixed its police department, and no way is my child going there. We were open enough to go on a visit as my son was being recruited for a sport, and while it's a nice school for some, we did not see it as the right place for my son. |
Grinnell is a harder admit (at least in RD) |
My DS considered all of these and we visited all. Agree with visiting St Olaf as a safety. And Grinnell. You can fly into Minneapolis and see Macalester, St Olaf and Carleton and then go to Grinnell in one trip. That is what we did. Separately visited Oberlin and Kenyon in a different trip. |
Thanks! |
I live in the twin cities. This is accurate. It is very residential and doesn’t feel very urban. |
Where did your kid wind up going? We’re looking for a SLAC in an urban area in a blue state so Macalester seems great on paper but I would like more diversity as well. |