Trip report: Grinnell and Macalester, with a little Vassar mixed in

Parents Forum
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We recently returned to New York from a trip to both schools, and despite the distance and expense, felt the visits were well worth it! These were the last two schools to visit and essential in helping our daughter decide if she wants to apply ED anywhere.

Grinnell was hosting their Discover Grinnell event, and we were all mightily impressed with this school. They have a huge endowment and it shows, in the facilities, the programs, etc. The president gave a warm and humorous speech. D stayed overnight, and while she and her host were not a great match, she still spent a very enjoyable evening with other students she met and marveled at everyone’s friendliness and eagerness to talk about their love of the school. She was, unfortunately, in a dorm building that she described as dark, tiny, and “prison-like.” Other dorms she saw looked much nicer. She attended a physics class and unfortunately, had trouble understanding the professor because he had a thick accent. The school was very diverse compared to every other LAC we have seen, second only to Vassar. The food was very, very good. At the end, D decided to apply, but said she got a strong vibe that drinking and drugs are very big on campus, and while she’s aware this will exist everywhere, she felt a discomfort about it that she has not felt elsewhere. So it’s at the lower end of her preferred schools, for this reason and for distance and very rural location. I think my husband and I liked it more than she did!

On the flip side, she fell in LOVE with Macalester. Campus and facilities were not as impressive as Grinnell’s, but still a fairly pretty campus in a GREAT neighborhood with lots of stores and restaurants, public transportation to downtown Twin Cities. Info session and tours were great, very impressed by internship programs, but a little turned off by the surprising high number of distribution requirements. She attended a philosophy class that was held outdoors, as were many other classes we saw, and really enjoyed it. Food was great in Café Mac, and she ate 3 meals there. She loved her host and her host’s friends, who took her to their a cappella rehearsal, and she felt like she fit right in. Dorms were very nice, a surprise because we had heard otherwise, and she saw all of them because her host knew people in every building and took her to meet them!

After we returned home, D struggled a bit because she had been considering ED to Vassar after a second visit, during which she attended a great psychology class and met with the director of the neuroscience program, who was amazingly warm, welcoming, and took her on a tour of the science facilities. She was kind of on a Macalester high and was reconsidering, but in the end, after very careful comparing, chose to still apply ED to Vassar even though Mac is a super-close second. Vassar won because of the more open curriculum, the proximity to home, the diversity of the students, and the beauty of the campus. But if she winds up at Mac she will still be thrilled!

Hope this is informative for anyone reading!

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Wishing your D well through this process. Sounds like she made a well-considered choice of where to apply ED and it is nice she has other schools she could be happy at.

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The Twin Cities in the fall are lovely. However, they will not be holding class outside much longer and getting used to a Minnesota winter is not for the faint of heart.

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what other schools make up her list, if you don’t mind sharing?

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Thank you @happy1! @twoinanddone I agree about the weather, and pointed that out to her! @doschicos she will be applying to Kenyon, Dickinson, and Muhlenberg and possibly Skidmore as well.

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Nice list!

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Out of curiosity, was there a reason why Oberlin’s not on the list if Kenyon’s on the list.

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@cobrat D plays an instrument but does not want to major in music, and our understanding was that non-music majors do not have as much of an opportunity to play in ensembles. On addition, D has a hard time agreeing to apply somewhere without visiting, even though her dad and I would prefer if she added a few more schools to her list!

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I think you guys did great. It is too easy to get sucked into that “why not this one” trap and then end up with an unnecessarily long list. You can only attend one college and I am a long time advocate of keeping the application list to ten or less.

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Assuming Muhlenberg is an affordable safety that she could be happy at then no need to add schools just for the sake of having more applications. Both of my kids had small but well thought out lists. I do think Skidmore is a good one to apply to if need be – but hopefully she will get into Vassar ED and you will be done!

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I would agree if we’re talking about a finalized application list of colleges. However, my impression from OP is that they haven’t gotten to that point, yet.

Also, part of my questioning of why Oberlin wasn’t included was OP’s mentioning of the D’s interest in Neuroscience which it is well known for among those I know who majored in it for undergrad, are doing PhDs in it currently, or working in related fields.

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I do appreciate all the input. I wasn’t aware that Oberlin had a well-known neuroscience program, @cobrat thanks! The truth is, my daughter is comfortable with six schools, and it’s my husband and I who would like her to add maybe another two. But yes, Muhlenberg is a safety, the only thing is that D liked it a lot at first but after returning home, got a little negative about it, not sure why. Husband and I both liked it very much. Dickinson is a very likely school too, her stats are high for it and she has shown a ton of interest, something they rank as “very important.” If it comes down to those two, meaning she gets rejected by everywhere else, I think we’ll encourage an overnight at each to decide. Dickinson seems academically stronger, but I feel like Muhlenberg might be a better fit socially. Overnights are kind of a mixed thing, though. I’m convinced D would have liked Grinnell better with a different host who lived in a nicer dorm.

And @happy1 I sure do hope so too! Her academic rigor and grades are excellent, test scores kind of mixed (math SAT below the 25th percentile, CR and W in the low middle 50th), ECs not really “impressive” though she’s done a lot with her instrument since the age of 8, and elaborated in the role music plays in many aspects of her life in a supplemental essay. Other essays pretty good, recs should be great. They say they don’t weigh demonstrated interest, but she toured twice, attended a class, met with the director of the neuro department, and will do an alumni interview after applying. But still, it’s Vassar and it’s a reach! So so nervous for her!

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Best of luck. My son also loved Macalester----in January! The people were so helpful.

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@Lizardly, that’s good to know! The day we visited was warm and beautiful, and we didn’t want to be negative nellies but felt the need to point out that it was going to be winter-like very soon and stay that way! Part of her positive experience was attending class outdoors, being able to walk on Gramd Street…so I’d love to hear about your January experience. Is your son applying?

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One thing to keep in mind about schools located in places with cold winters is that there’s a substantial difference between being on a small campus (e.g., Macalester) and a large one (e.g., U.W.-Madison). The buildings are so close together at places such as Macalester that it’s not necessarily a big deal that the weather is sometimes frightful.

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Good luck to your daughter with ED at Vassar. She has a very nice list.

I agree that overnights can be hit or miss. DS overnight host at Grinnell refused to let him sleep on the floor and insisted he sleep in his bed. It was one the many examples of midwest “niceness” that sold him on the school. I think the host was an exchange student from an African country so niceness from around the world is at Grinnell.

According to my son, East side of campus is less drinking and smoking (mostly board games (son says sort of joking) and substance free kids), South is smoking and North is drinking.

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I went to college in the twin cities and LOVED it. It was cold in January and February , however, at least where I was people were still quite active. They didn’t tend to hibernate as much as other Midwestern cities I’ve lived in. Another interesting fact about Macalester. It is a part of the ACTC (associated colleges of the twin cities) you can take one class per term at any of the four other schools. I did not go to Macalester but I took a class there and at another campus in the ACTC. At the time there were even majors that could be completed by taking classes at other campuses if your “home” campus does not offer the major or the class. The schools in the ACTC are Macalestar, Hamline University, Augsburg, St. Catherine University, and University of St. Thomas

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We live in a warm climate, so we made sure he visited MN when it was cold. His dad had business there and just dropped son off to fend for himself for the day. He arrived at a time when the cafeteria was closed, I think, too early, but the cafeteria workers took pity on him and let him in out of the cold. That set the tone, really. Son saw a warm (haha), welcoming place. People helped son find admissions office, classes to sit in on, people to talk to. Once all the appointments were over, he just wandered in and out of the shops and restaurants outside of campus. This was a few years ago. I will pm you.

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@bhs1978 Yes we heard about that ACTC thing when they discussed the foreign language requirement. My daughter was very happy, because she was hoping to take American sign language and she learned that while it isn’t offered at Mac, it is offered at one of the other schools.

@Lizardly My daughter had the same impression of a warm welcoming place, except it actually was warm the day we were there, ha ha. We did get a chance to eat in the dining hall and the food was really really good.

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I loved the Twin Cities and had friends that went to all the colleges in St. Paul and Minneapolis. They are all great colleges. Mac seems to have gained in popularity outside the region more than the others. St. Paul is quite different than Minneapolis, but it’s fairly easy to go back and forth. Winters are bone cold, but the sun shines quite a bit so it’s not an unbearable gray dismal freezing cold. I miss my Minneapolis winters.