On Monday, Aug. 25, the Macalester community officially welcomed most of the Class of 2029. Throughout the day, incoming students were welcomed by Orientation Leaders (OLs), Residential Assistants, faculty, staff and other community members as they moved into their dorms, began to settle onto campus and said their goodbyes to their loved ones.
The Class of 2029 consists of 536 students, a drop from 560 students in the Class of 2028. Out of 8,816 applicants, Macalester admitted 2,396, and around 22 percent of admitted students chose to enroll. About 17 percent of incoming students are international students, with students having citizenships from 59 countries. Additionally, domestic students come from 42 states, as well as the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Many first-year students chose to commit to Macalester because of what many see as the unique college experience that it offers.
“I wanted to go to a small liberal arts college, especially an academically rigorous one,” Andrew Fleming ’29 said. “I wanted to go to some place where people were intellectually curious or interested in the world in different areas, and I’d be more likely to find that at a place like Macalester. I was also definitely interested in having access to the cities that you get with Macalester.”
For some first-year students, the adjustment to college life from high school is significant.
“I came from a tiny online high school with a graduating class of 12 people, and I get nervous meeting new people,” Mordecai Alba ’29 wrote in an email to The Mac Weekly. “Everyone I’ve met has been so welcoming and understanding.”
Even before the start of orientation, many first-years were already getting to know the Mac community through pre-semester programs, including student-athlete training and international student orientation. Additionally, first-years participating in Lives of Commitment (LoC) arrive early for a weekend pre-orientation retreat. LoC aims to engage first-year students with the broader Twin Cities community through volunteering.
“We went to The Somali Museum, the Hmong Museum and George Floyd Square,” Shoshana Castro Root ’29, a LoC program participant said. “I’m new to Minneapolis and Saint Paul, so I was able to connect more to the cities.”
Once all the first-years moved in, the new students began an intensive, week-long orientation to get themselves acclimated to campus life.
Orientation was primarily facilitated by OLs. All of the first-years were organized into Orientation groups known as Scottish Houses. Each Scottish House had two OL who conducted one-onone meetings, created group programming, assisted in Orientation programming and helped guide first-years throughout the week.
“From my perspective, I mostly saw how the people in my group became more comfortable with each other,” OL Bella Chan-MacRae ’28 said. “The first-years kind of come out of their shells a little more easily, and they’re a little more sociable and a little more willing to put in the effort to participate in Orientation and [are] doing their best to orient themselves to college life.”
Part of orientation week is designed to help the first-years make friends on campus and feel integrated with their class-year as well as the broader campus community, such as the nightly social events.
“I sang an original song [at the New Student Talent Show] and then afterwards, me and a couple other people went to a music room, and we started doing a little jam session and improvising music,” Riley Gaiowiski ’29 said.
In addition to making new friends, Orientation serves as a time for first-year students to learn how to navigate Macalester through This Matters at Mac sessions. This Matters at Mac educates students on a wide range of topics from health and wellbeing to sexual respect and Title IX. Throughout the week, OLs and various Macalester departments hosted additional optional Life at Mac Sessions and Wellness Breaks, where first-years could learn more about resources on campus and in the greater Twin Cities area.
“[The Orientation sessions] kind of felt repetitive towards the end of the week, but a lot of them had good information, especially the optional ones on the Great Lawn that were really fun,” Emily Keller ’29 said.
First-years also got the chance to meet their professors for their First Year Course (FYC) during Orientation. FYCs serve as a first-year’s introduction to Macalester’s academics and part of the course is devoted to helping students with college writing and academic research skills. It also serves as an opportunity for first-year students to adjust to a liberal arts approach to academics.
“My FYC is ‘Writing Against the Machine,’” Gaiowiski said. “Our assignment right now is we’re paired up with someone in the class and we have to teach them something we’re really good at … so I’m going to be learning calligraphy and then teaching someone how to write slam poetry.”
As the first-years settle into the academic year, some of the students are beginning to feel more comfortable on campus and becoming part of the Macalester community.
“I was definitely a lot more shy and introverted before coming here,” Keller said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve been seeking out new interactions and new experiences… I’ve been making a lot of friends and [it] has definitely stood out that I will be walking and all of the time I’ll see someone that I recognize.”
