Transferring Spring 2015: Grinnell vs Macalester and Beloit vs Kalamazoo

cookie627
Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:23:26 +0000

Hi everyone!

I’m looking to transfer from my current school to any one of these schools listed in the title. I haven’t visited any of them, just looked up information on the internet.

From what I’ve heard, these schools are all very similar, so if current students could speak to them, that would be great!

About me:
I came in to college as a natural science major, but I find that this isn’t quite for me. I’m really into social justice, specifically racial and gender equity (which I hear Grinnell is very well known for their social activism). Hence, I’m looking into anthropology, sociology, and would like to continue with economics and possibly languages – Chinese and Spanish. I would like do take some creative writing courses as well. However, I would still like the opportunity to take a few math classes here and there. I’m very much into music; I sing in a chorus and I LOVE going to a capella concerts or just concerts in general. So this leads into what I’m looking for in a school: Aside from those academic and music endeavors, I’d like a school that has lots of jobs available on campus for work-study, etc. NON-pretentious, non cutthroat environment, and not preppy (!!! can’t do preppy) (although I understand that there will be all kinds of kids everywhere; just a school where it’s less prominent), an environment for learning for the sake of learning, quirky individuals, very small classes, passionate and incredibly knowledgeable professors who truly love students and teaching, preferably a bigger city, but I know I’m at a loss with that for Grinnell and Beloit, and just generally very nice, liberal, accepting students! I’m just a very accepting person and would like others to be the same. Also, diversity is really important to me!
Additionally, I’d like to go to grad school afterward, not sure for what, but possibly for education (professor, teacher, education policy, really anything education related)!

Stats wise:
HS: 1960 SAT superscore (610CR, 660W, 690M), 4.0GPA /valedictorian, good amount of APs/honors, excellent ECs, all that jazz.
College: 3.64 Cumulative/Dean’s list both semesters. Good involvement in clubs and have taken on some leadership positions already.

Thanks so much! Ideally, I could narrow my pool to one reach and one safety to apply to, but I’m so torn that I think I’ll apply to all four, though meaning more individual essays.

And I’ll probably start similar threads on each of these schools as well so see what parents and students of those other schools have to say.