<p>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.</p>
<p>– 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.</p>
<p>– 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.</p>
<p>–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.</p>
<p>–Cafeteria food is very good. The dorms I have seen are rather mundane but liveable and certainly not a feature of the school.</p>
<p>–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.</p>
<p>Here’s a link to post I did last year on Mac vs. Wesleyan.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12113828-post2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/12113828-post2.html</a></p>
<p>Does this help?</p>