City: St. Paul, MN

Category: Education

Telephone: (651) 696-6000

Address: 1600 Grand Ave.

Description: Macalester College is a preeminent private liberal arts college conferring undergraduate degrees on some of the world’s brightest students. The college is respected locally, nationally, and internationally for maintaining high academic standards and championing internationalism and multiculturalism. Macalester is the recipient of enormous endowment monies, particularly from the DeWitt-Wallace fund, which helps underwrite the costs of tuition, through scholarships and other awards, for students of low socioeconomic status.Macalester was founded in 1874 by the Reverend Dr. Edward Duffield Neill. A former superintendent for Minnesota Territory Schools, Neill did not move the college to its present site until 1885. In its early years the college received significant financial support from philanthropist Charles Macalester, for whom the college was named.Macalester College’s diversity is reflected in the exceptional students it attracts from the nation and abroad. Macalester is the alma mater of both former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, and the school is highly selective. Nestled on a leafy campus in the exquisite Macalester-Groveland neighborhood, the college creates an excellent learning environment. Macalester’s demographics consistently have represented one of the most diverse schools of higher education in the nation. The roughly 1,900 full-time undergraduates come from 48 states, D.C., and around the world. There are 36 majors offered at Macalester, including geography, Russian, and classics, as well as African-American studies, women’s and gender studies, urban studies, and several interdepartmental fields. A major area of focus at Macalester is the arts, particularly music and theater. Macalester hosts four or five theater productions a year. In addition, the college features numerous organized music groups, which include: Symphony Orchestra, Mac Jazz, New Music Ensemble, Festival Chorale, Flying Fingers (a traditional bluegrass group), the Electric Guitar, and several other diverse music organizations.