By David Lopez '10
Selangor, Malaysia
Economics, Mathematics
After Mac: Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis, research analyst

The following is excerpted from an article written by David Lopez for the August 30, 2009, New Sunday Times, an English-language newspaper published in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This spring David served on a team assessing new product submissions by researchers at the Mayo Clinic.

Since 2006, I have studied at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where I am pursuing a major in economics and mathematics. I have had the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the liberal arts education system and observe how it develops a student’s intellectual experience.

Macalester offers a rigorous academic program that is reflective of the success of liberal arts colleges. These colleges have consistently rivaled other well-known universities in producing top class undergraduates each year like Kofi Annan [Macalester Class of ’61; Nobel Laureate and former U.N. Secretary-General].

While students major in a particular field, the liberal arts curriculum encourages students to widen their knowledge base in other areas. Consider, for instance, having the opportunity to learn about the problems of economic inequality and poverty in a morning class, and then analyzing its role in the political problems of the Middle East in an afternoon class.

The diverse and multicultural student body at liberal arts colleges allows students from different backgrounds to share common experiences and build friendships. Macalester has almost 90 countries represented and over 80 different languages spoken on campus.

The small size of liberal arts schools is a far cry from the student bodies in large universities. Building relationships with professors eventually leads to strong recommendations for graduate schools and jobs and the chance to interact with professors in the classroom and on research projects.

Liberal arts colleges are strong academic institutions that will offer four life-changing years.