Macalester Welcomes Class of 2014

This fall Macalester College celebrates the arrival of 545 new members to its community. These include about 520 first year students and 25 transfer students (final, official enrollment figures are calculated two weeks after the start of classes).

This class was selected from 4,317 applicants. Of the incoming first year and transfer students, 429 have been involved in community service projects and more than one third have traveled to a different country to work on a mission or service project.

Their lives and interests are incredibly varied. Among them are 11 guitar players, many band and orchestra members, an opera singer and a bagpiper. They are in to hip-hop, ballet, and ballroom dance, writing plays and recording songs. Some have sung in Carnegie Hall and won debate championships. Six of our new students are Eagle Scouts. They’ve published book reviews, authored blogs and won numerous fellowships and awards. We have a circus performer, a trapeze artist and a frog-hunter. Others ride horses and train them. They are accomplished athletes, Sonic carhops, political canvassers, camp counselors, and published authors.

The class of 2014 is one of the most diverse to enter Macalester. Students come from 42 states, 47 countries, 422 different high schools and speak 25 different languages in their homes. They grew up on rural farms, in small cities and villages, in the largest cities in the world and everywhere in between. More than a dozen members of the class fled from a homeland in chaos.

The top five intended majors are International Studies, Biology, Political Science, English and Psychology. Many have an interest in majoring in the languages. Over 250 plan to study abroad and 42 have family who are currently or have previously attended Macalester. Two are the sixth in their families to attend Macalester. Eight are one half of a set of twins, and two sets of twins are both members of this class.

The class includes 13 Katherines, 10 Rebeccas, nine Sarahs and seven Benjamins. The most common last names include Anderson, Wang, Lee and Johnson.

On Tuesday when classes begin and students from all classes return, Macalester will have more than 1,990 students from 69 different countries, the District of Columbia, and 48 states.

Welcome class of 2014!