Macalester vs. Whitman

Hello! I am a transfer applicant who has been accepted to both of these schools. I love the international focus of macalester, but not its urban location, and whitmans outdoorsy nature and love the outdoor program, but not its distance from home. Where should I go?

Oof. Tough call. Two of my favorite LACs. I don’t know that anyone on this board is going to be able to provide you a lot of useful advice on that choice – it’s all about you and what your priorities are. Have you been able to visit both? Are there specific areas of interest where you could compare their relative strength?

Agree that you have two excellent choices. Congrats! What do you want to study?

I want to work with refugees abroad, so I want to do international development or human rights as a major!

Macalester’s urban location is something you’ll live with every day. How many times each year will you be inconvenienced by Whitman’s distance from home? A few times per year?

“I want to work with refugees abroad, so I want to do international development or human rights as a major!”

Although I really like Whitman, it seems the Macalester might make more sense for you with its international focus and given that MSP is a metro area with a large refugee population.

Mac has a climbing club and an outing club, if that helps.

http://www.macalester.edu/lifeatmac/clubs/

And Nordic skiing:

http://themacweekly.com/2016/03/macalesters-nordic-ski-club-on-how-to-actually-enjoy-winter/

Agree with @doschicos that Mac and the Twin Cities are probably a better place to pursue your long term goals.

First, congratulations on having two great choices! Many paths can lead to your goals, and undoubtedly there are many Whitman grads who work internationally and work for human rights, here and abroad. Macalester often refers to its international focus and international student body and is a great school, however, you’ve already said that you aren’t thrilled with its location. The Outdoor Program at Whitman is tremendous and makes it easy to take advantage of all the nature that surrounds it. It also has a very active fun campus in a charming small city. If you’re thinking of an international career, will that involve being far from home quite a bit? Many college students are often totally immersed in their lives on campus and only go home on holidays anyway.

Nobody here can answer the question of where you should go, that is your decision alone, we can only point to the schools’ differences and/or similarities. It’s going to come down to how you feel on campus, visiting both will give you a wealth of information!

Thank you for your comments! I know in the end it comes down to my own decision, but I like the comments comparing the two. They really help bring our strengths and weaknesses of both colleges that I hadn’t fully noticed before, and they’re very helpful! More comments are welcome! Thanks

Have you visited Whitman?

Considering your interests I agree that Macalester sounds like the better choice for you.

@bopambo yes, I was able to visit a couple weeks ago and loved the area!

Ok, great, so you have a good sense of the campus, area, and travel; that’s good. Whitman has a wonderful environment (both campus and beyond), has rigorous academics and is very socially and environmentally conscious. It is very strong in environmental studies, both the science and human interaction sides. It has strong humanities departments: racial and ethnic studies, psychology, philosophy, history, economics etc.

Macalester on the other hand has whole departments in International Studies, International Development, and Human Rights. So, judging purely on your stated goals, Macalester is the obvious choice.

The fly in the ointment is that you like the physical environment at Whitman better. I’m not saying that isn’t important, but you need to decide HOW important it is to you. Are you absolutely certain about your goals, as a transfer student you have less time to play around with declaring a major. If you stick with your stated purpose and go to Whitman, they could certainly aim you at classes and internships that would help you get where you want to go, but you would have to take a very self directed and single minded interest in seeking out the best opportunities. At Macalester there are be quite a few other students heading in the very same direction along a well traveled path.

Are you someone who needs to get out and DO things in nature to sustain yourself? Half my family are exactly that way, so I can understand that totally. If so, are you able to ignore that part of yourself temporarily while you finish school? Seems to me these are the important questions. Go to Whitman and have the closeness to nature and a great education, but perhaps a more circuitous route to your career, or put your outdoor desires on hold temporarily, and get more direct access to the international human rights community. Only you can decide.

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I agree that urban vs. outdoorsy is something that you’ll have to deal with every day, whereas distance from home is only something you’ll deal with a couple times a year. The exception is, of course, if you are driving distance from Macalester and you will have access to a car, and you think you’ll drive home relatively often or would like to have the option to do so.

One really important thing to note is that Whitman doesn’t appear to have an international studies major at all. Macalester, on the other hand, has three majors/concentrations that are directly related to your interests: human rights and humanitarianism; international development; and international studies. That’s not to mention the cultural studies majors (Latin American studies, Middle Eastern studies, Asian languages and cultures, African studies, etc.) and the community and global health major. Now, that’s not to say that you won’t change your mind or be able to do what you want at Whitman with a major in politics or sociology - but given that you’re so torn and anything can be a tiebreaker, to me that would be a huge vote in Macalester’s favor. Even if you do change your mind you are unlikely to become totally uninterested in international studies and human rights, and the classes are there for you to take at Macalester (borne out by the fact that there are three separate areas of study in them!) whereas they may not be at Whitman.

Another note to remember is that just because you live in an urban area doesn’t mean that the outdoors isn’t accessible. I live in the Seattle area, but outdoorsiness is an important part of the culture and I live less than 10 minutes from some of the best hiking trails in the area, and less than an hour away from skiing and kayaking and all manner of other outdoors stuff. The Twin Cities also have a strong outdoorsy culture. You drive a couple hours and you’re in national forests. Of course, one thing to remember is that it’s bitterly cold in Minnesota during the winter. Southern Washington state doesn’t get that cold.

I don’t know, the more I’m browsing around on Mac’s website looking at all the international offerings (their international studies major is the oldest at any LAC; Kofi Annan, an alumni, has spoken there along with other distinguished speakers in the area of human rights; they sponsor study abroad focused on human rights issues each year; they offer so many languages; they have a Macalester Development Group that funds groups of students who come up with an international development project) the more I’d lean towards attending Macalester.

I’m sorry if you answered this question already, but did you visit Macalester? I had never been to the twin cities before my son attended Macalester, and was impressed by the outdoorsy options, lovely lakes and parks and even a waterfall, all right in the city. I also really like their attitude about the cold……“there is no bad weather, only bad clothing!” I’m a Chicago gal and love the snow, but that one sentence helped me to better appreciate the importance of a good coat and good boots.

I went on campus but didn’t get a formal tour at macalester @rnl2691 I think I made my final decision, thank you so much to all of you for your help!

@transfer1313, please tell us what you decided.

Macalester! @bopambo

That makes perfect sense, best wishes! Thanks for letting us know.

Congratulations!