Macalester College

Macalester College maintains a steady profile in national standings, holding the 28th position in the 2027 US News National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking. Gaining admission requires navigating an increasingly competitive applicant pool, though the college accepts a somewhat larger slice of candidates than many close counterparts. For the class entering in 2025, the college posted an acceptance rate of 28.5%, which is higher than 70% of 30 private liberal arts colleges with similar rankings. At the same time, the institution experiences notable competition when securing commitments from admitted applicants. Its yield rate reached 21.9%, meaning just over one in five admitted students chose to enroll. Because fewer than a quarter of accepted candidates matriculate, prospective students can recognize that Macalester frequently competes against peer liberal arts colleges during the final decision process. For applicants building a balanced college list, these admissions measures reflect selective entry paired with moderate drawing power among those offered admission.

Applicants to Macalester College encounter a demanding academic evaluation, with enrolled students consistently presenting strong standardized test records. For the class entering in 2025, the middle 50% composite score range on the ACT stretched between 30 and 34. Among students who provided SAT results, the institutional median score was 1440. Standardized testing has become less universal across the applicant pool over recent years, as 29% of first-year students submitted SAT scores in 2025. Prospective candidates planning their applications should view these figures as practical benchmarks of academic readiness. Scoring within or above these historical bands demonstrates competitive academic preparation and aligns an applicant comfortably with the core profile of the student body. Those applying should focus on pairing these strong testing credentials with rigorous high school coursework to support a compelling candidacy.

Macalester College awarded 524 bachelor degrees in 2025, operating solely as an undergraduate institution without graduate programs. Curricular interests are widely distributed rather than concentrated in a few fields, with the three largest majors accounting for 26.3% of all degree recipients. The leading disciplines by graduate numbers are Research and Experimental Psychology, Other, followed by Econometrics and Quantitative Economics, and Biology/Biological Sciences, General. Among these popular areas, Economics stands out as an established academic strength, earning the 88th spot in the 2027 US News undergraduate economics ranking. When evaluating post-college compensation, alumni from technical and analytical disciplines see strong early financial rewards. According to earnings data from 2023, graduates in Computer and Information Sciences, General achieved median first-year earnings of $88,260, while those in Economics earned a median of $70,570. These outcomes demonstrate that students who pursue quantitative fields find immediate market value after finishing their undergraduate studies.

Macalester College maintains an entirely undergraduate campus community in 2025, primarily comprising continuing upperclassmen alongside an incoming class of first-year learners and a small group of transfer students. Racial and geographic diversity is particularly evident within the entering first-year cohort. In this incoming group, international students numbered 117, representing 20.9% of the cohort. Asian students in the same entering class totaled 46, accounting for an 8.2% share. Continuing undergraduates also feature significant representation of international and Asian scholars alongside white, Hispanic, and Black peers. This distribution reflects an academic setting where domestic students from varied cultural backgrounds share classrooms with peers from abroad. For prospective families examining the campus environment, these statistics confirm that both international and Asian students form visible, well-integrated segments of the college's undergraduate student body.

Macalester College serves an entirely undergraduate population concentrated in the traditional college-age range. In 2025, students aged twenty to twenty-one formed the largest group at 47.1% of the 2,127 undergraduates, while those aged eighteen to nineteen made up 43%. Students aged twenty-two to twenty-four accounted for 8.3%, and the institution enrolls no graduate students. Because the student body consists exclusively of undergraduates, campus life, student organizations, and academic programming cater entirely to young adults pursuing four-year bachelor's degrees. With no graduate cohorts present, campus activities and facilities remain focused solely on traditional-age undergraduate life.

International students represent a substantial component of the undergraduate community at Macalester College. In 2025, undergraduate international enrollment stood at 15%, a share that is higher than 83% of peer schools among similarly ranked private liberal arts colleges. Because Macalester operates as an exclusively undergraduate institution, it enrolls no graduate students, concentrating its international presence entirely at the baccalaureate level. Overall, international students accounted for 9.4% of all bachelor degree graduates in 2025. When examining completed areas of study, international graduates are notably concentrated in analytical coursework. The heaviest concentration appears in Econometrics and Quantitative Economics, where international scholars made up 28.9% of degree recipients. Other large fields, including psychology and computer science, see far smaller international shares. For prospective international applicants, these patterns indicate a campus that draws global students at rates well above the liberal arts median, with especially visible international participation in quantitative majors.

Applicants evaluating Macalester College can consider several other higher education options within the surrounding Twin Cities metropolitan area. Just 1.1 kilometers away in Saint Paul is University of St Thomas, a private national university ranked 156th in the 2027 US News rankings. Across the river at a distance of 4.1 kilometers lies University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, a major public research institution ranked 59th nationally. About 8.2 kilometers away, Bethel University offers another private national university environment, ranked 236th. For families focused specifically on top liberal arts institutions, Carleton College is situated 32.9 kilometers south in Northfield, Minnesota, holding the 16th spot among national liberal arts colleges.

Campus safety records at Macalester College indicate a noticeable reduction in incidents over the past decade. The crime rate per 1,000 students declined from 36.9 in 2016 to 18.1 in 2025. Across the three-year period from 2023 to 2025, the vast majority of recorded safety events involved substance-related disciplinary violations rather than violent offenses. Specifically, disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations totaled 153 incidents, while drug law disciplinary referrals totaled 37 incidents over those years. Criminal offenses occurred with much lower frequency during that timeframe, including reports of rape, stalking, and motor vehicle theft. By distinguishing institutional disciplinary infractions from criminal acts, families can obtain an accurate understanding of campus security. These metrics show that while substance enforcement accounts for most safety activity, serious crime remains relatively infrequent on Macalester's urban campus.