SAT: Didn't send
ACT: 34, English 34 Math 31 Science 35 Reading 36
SAT II: 710 Lit 730 Math 1 730 US history
GPA: 3.85 weighted, probably significantly lower UW, grade trend that look approximately like the graph of x^92825442
Rank: Around 15th percentile
AP Tests: 3 world history, 4 macro, 5 micro, 5 stats, 5 US history, 5 language
Essays: I thought my common app was strong, teachers all really liked it, in reality probably wasn't strong relative to others. Why Mac one was marginally creative
Teacher Recs: Very good I thought, had a chance to read them, sent in two english teachers who absolutely adored me, my econ teacher who thought I was the best thing since slice bread for passing both econ exams since he feels he's the worst teacher in the world (true, but still the nicest man you'll ever meet). Did a supplement from the executive director of a non-profit I intern for. Thought they were all good, probably not that strong relative to everyone else's though.
Counselor Rec: Probably weak, didn't know her very well. Very nice lady who seemed to like me but just swamped with 500 other kids.
No hook, no supplementary materials.
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
High School Type: Public, 2000 kids
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Male
Extracurricular: Intern for a local lacrosse non-profit, coach inner city kids, coach my suburban youth teams, varsity lacrosse captain, link crew, football, volunteer with the minnesota national guard to work with youth who have parents deployed overseas
Awards: National AP Scholar with distinction (I think?)
Pretty bummed about the waitlist, oh well we'll see I suppose!
[ b]Stats:[ /b][ list]
[ *]SAT: Not submitted
[ *]SAT II: Not submitted
[ *]ACT: 32
[ *]GPA: 4.1
[ *]Rank:Top 10
[ *]Essays: In my opinion they were good but not stellar
[ *]Teacher Recs: Great
[ *]Counselor Rec: Probably average
[ *]Supplementary Material: N/A
[ *]Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): IB diploma candidate
[ /list][ b]Personal[ /b][ list]
[ *]Location: Minnesota (25 minute drive from Mac)
[ *]High School Type: Large Public
[ *]Ethnicity: Caucasian
[ *]Gender Male
[ /list][ b]Other[ /b][ list]
[ *]Extracurriculars: International Extemperaneous Speaking, Theater, NHS
[ *]Awards: World Language student of the year (school award)
[ *]Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?:
Stats:
ACT: 32. Don't remember the subcategories... 36 in Math, 35 in English...
GPA: 4.8 weighted
Rank: saludictorian
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): AP Econ 5, gov 5, eng lang 5, span lang 2, will take physics, eng lit, euro, and calc bc
Subjective
Essays: I don't remember.
Teacher Recs: Math teacher was really good, emphasized my unique and creative way of thinking which is cool coming from a math teacher. US history teacher, less interesting, but good nonetheless.
Counselor Rec: Surprisingly personal for someone who only sees me once or twice a year and deals with 400 other kids.
Supplementary Material: mmm none
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): not an athlete. or legacy. Oh, but I won the Nobel peace prize
Personal
Location: Illinois
High School Type: Public
Gender: N/A
Other
Extracurriculars: Math team, scholastic bowl, community service... can't think of anything else, but there's more.
Awards: nothing outstanding
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I learned russian on the college level for 6 weeks. yep.
I guess I'll post this (Even though it's a little late haha).
Accepted ED2! Also, for people who are questioning financial aid, it comes about a week later.
SAT: 2090, don't remember subscores
ACT: 34, English 34 Math 36, Science 34 Reading 31
SAT II: 760 Chem, 760 US History
GPA: 3.94
Rank: Around 20th percentile
AP Tests: 5 Chemistry, 4 US History
Essays: my common app was a little cheesy, and my mac essay talked about how my friends growing up were all from different countries and how i really liked the multicultural atmosphere of te college
Teacher Recs: One from my math teacher, which was good, and an excellent one from my english teacher.
Counselor Rec: probably okay, I didn't know her too well, but she seemed to like me when I did come in to talk to her.
Hook: I guess I was being recruited for track, but it doesn't really matter since Mac is D3
Location: Oregon
High School Type: Public, 1200 kids
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Gender: Female
Extracurricular: Nordic Ski Team (co-captain), Track, Cross Country, NHS, Link Crew, Genetics Lab Volunteer, Engineering Lab Intern, Model United Nations, and other random clubs and summer jobs.
Awards: National Merit Commended Scholar and Academic Achievement Award for Athletics
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: I am just happy I got in and excited to go there!
I have been accepted to Macalester with an amazing financial aid offer, and I am seriously considering it. The only problem is, I've never been there. It's possible that I will visit in April, but I was just wondering if any of you have visited and would be willing to describe your visit for me?
If you could share the schools that you have visited I could probably frame a description by contrast with those that you have seen that might be more useful to you. (I did peak at your list of applied/accepted and I have visited almost all of them.)
Wow, cool! I've been to Lawrence, Mount Holyoke, Oberlin, Smith, U. Rochester, Wellesley, and Yale. (Of the ones I've applied. I also visited Wesleyan and Northwestern, but I ended up not applying.)
OK, I've seen Lawrence, Oberlin, Smith, Rochester, Wellesley, and Yale (and Wesleyan and NU). I live three miles from Mac and know it well.
-- Of all these, the feel of the physical campus feel is, IMO, closest to Lawrence. Mac is in a mostly residential area with a couple of busy streets on the perimeter and a semi-commercial street adjoining (not downtown like at Lawrence, but restaurants and shops nearby). Mac's campus is more architecturally "integrated" than Lawrence (mostly dark brick buildings of modest size) and more compact than any of these schools. This makes it quick and easy to get around, but there is some risk that it will seem confining after a while. There is nothing like the sweeping landscape vistas at Wellesley nor the grandeur of Yale buildings nor interesting geographic features like the Lake Michigan at NU and the Fox River at Lawrence.
-- On the other hand, leave campus and there is plenty of room to walk to. Mac is in a comfortable older (built c. 1920's) middle class neighborhood of St. Paul with historic mansion-filled Summit Boulevard on one edge. You can feel safe walking here by yourself (I infer that you are female) at waking times of the day and in the wee hours a moderate level of city-safety awareness is prudent. There are plenty of diverse ethnic restaurants to try up and down Grand Ave. A bike ride (or bus ride) can take you to the parkway along the Mississippi river or the wooded parks in south St. Paul. This is urban, but relaxed urban, not like Yale or the outskirts of NU. And, of course, if you want to go farther afield you have the whole metro area to explore. You can't walk out of town like at Oberlin.
--Students are well-known for their political passion and commitment to liberal/left causes (green, internationalism, economic justice, etc.)--much more so than middle-of-the road Lawrence, at least--but don't usually present themselves as obviously countercultural, at least not with the same frequency as at Oberlin or Wesleyan. IMO, there is less of a need to broadcast one's individualism--understated is OK.
--Cafeteria food is very good. The dorms I have seen are rather mundane but liveable and certainly not a feature of the school.
--One other detail that might otherwise be missed is that there are many other colleges within a mile or two of Mac (St. Thomas, Hamline, St. Catherine's, Concordia-St. Paul) and the U of MN only a little further away. The main point is that there is a wider community of college-aged people that is likely to be encountered while at Mac, not unlike at Smith or Mount Holyoke.
Here's a link to post I did last year on Mac vs. Wesleyan. Mac vs. Wesleyan
Does this help?
Last edited by Descartesz; 03-28-2012 at 02:07 PM.
Wow, yeah, that actually gives me a much better concept of what the school is like... thanks for the comparisons!
Having read your post and talked to a representative on the phone, I am definitely going to go and visit Mac, probably for one of the Spring Samplers.
Thank you so much for the detailed descriptions-- now I'll go directly and see what you mean!
Objective
SAT: N/A
SAT II: N/A
ACT: 28
GPA: 3.99 UW/4.02 W
Rank: 4/500 something
Other Tests (AMC, AP, IB): APUSH: 5 AP ENG LANG: 4 AP FRENCH: 2
Subjective
Essays: I thought that they were pretty mediocre...considering I only spent less than a day on each.
Teacher Recs: I didn't get to read my English teacher's recommendation, but I think it was good, since I've known him forever. My French teacher's recommendation was pretty normal.
Counselor Rec: It was really short (it filled that tiny spot on the CommonApp for the counselor recommendation), but she complimented me a lot.
Supplementary Material: I sent a letter of recommendation from the Student Advocate from my school that knows me from participating in Asian American Support Group and Diversity Council (which she runs).
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): N/A
Personal
Location: Minnesota
High School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Vietnamese
Gender: Female
Other
Extracurriculars: Asian American Support Group, Diversity Council, International Club, Student Ambassador, National Honors Society, Green Club
Awards: We the People Minnesota State Champion, Star Student for Academics
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Whoa, I didn't expect to get in...I hope the best for everyone else that might be waiting!
SAT: 1990 640CR 640M 710W 8 essay
SAT II: 700 Spanish 780 US History 800 Chemistry 800 Math Level 2
ACT: 29 (33 English, 30 Reading, 28 Math, 24 Science)
GPA: 4.0 W ~3.4-3.5 UW
Rank: 42/a little over 500
AP Classes: 7 classes, 8 tests- AP World History (5), APUSH (5), AP English Lang & Comp (4), AP Statistics, AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics
Senior Year Courseload: AP Stats, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Microeconon/Macroecon (one semester each), British Literature/Advanced Composition (reg lit)
Subjective
Essays: nothing special but i am a decent writer
Teacher Recs: amazing one from my AP chem teacher and decent one from honors physics teacher
Counselor Rec: really good
Supplementary Material: a creative writing paper
Hook(recruited athlete, legacy, Nobel Prize): URM- half mexican and half peruvian, first-gen
Personal
Location: suburb of chicago
High School Type: 2000ish person public- some grads go to top schools, but most go to state schools
Ethnicity: Mexican, Peruvian
Gender: Female
Other
Extracurriculars: music (viola), cross-county, cheerleading, literary magazine, student government, medical careers club, national honor society, tutoring, volunteer work, STEM-related stuff, job
Awards: Illinois State Scholar, AP Scholar, Ventures Scholar, National Honor Society
Advice? Commiserations? Feel like bragging?: Weaknesses were the math/CR on SAT, math/science on ACT, class rank, and my UW GPA. I'm not upset, though, since I got into all the other schools I applied to, including Boston College, my first choice.
gfalada. Never assume wait-list means you are not a strong candidate. Wait-listers have the same credentials as those accepted. However, Macalester is no longer a needs-blind institution, so you have to keep in mind that they are looking very closely at applicants financial need. So, students with greater ability to pay full tuition end up accepted over those with lesser ability to pay full tuition.
