Minnesota Frame of Mind

[socialring]The weather is beautiful in Minnesota this time of year; a visit to the lovely Twin Cities and the neighboring town of Northfield a few days ago highlighted some beautiful college campuses filled with T-shirt-and-shorts-clad students, green lawns, and towering leafy trees, many of those leave which were…already turning. But that’s life in the Land of 10,000 Lakes and rest assured the onset of winter here does not signal gloom and doom. No, Minnesotans relish its arrival, and college students from far-flung environs learn to love it as well.

“We’re not supposed to, but we take the cafeteria trays to sled down the hills,” confided St. Olaf College tour guide Peder, from Springfield, Ohio. Carleton College was unabashed in its celebration of caf-tray looting-and-tobogganing, featuring it front-and-center in its promotional video. Cross-country skiing, broomball, and of course ice hockey also figure prominently in this if-you-can’t-beat-it, join-it philosophy, and if you really can’t take 12-below…well, University of Minnesota is connected by a series of underground tunnels affectionately known as Gopher Way that allow students to burrow their way from one building to another when the temps drop to extreme conditions (up here that means less than zero).

So maybe college students come for the education and not the winter, but they do stay for it. Three of the best liberal arts colleges in the country—Carleton, Macalester and St. Olaf—as well as University of Minnesota were on the itinerary last week as I scurried to gather the latest buzz before the leaves, and temperatures, start dropping.

Macalester is a campus in the Mac-Groveland neighborhood of historic St. Paul with a compact, manageable campus where the student body looked genuinely diverse and the vibe was decidedly liberal. Flyers and chalk reminders promoting the People’s Climate March in New York dotted walkways. Bikes were everywhere. Bikes are huge in Minnesota—at all four campuses I visited–and Minneapolis is ranked as one of the top biking cities in the country. Environmental and sustainability issues were clearly at the forefront here (only three percent bring cars to school). Macalester is really strong in all the sciences as well as global/international studies programs. “This is a good place for students who value discourse,” says admissions officer Anne Walsh. Macalester offers a non-credit January term to allow students winter time away for mini-abroad programs, jobs, or internships.

University of Minnesota is one of the largest state schools out there with 35,000 undergrads and 51,000 students overall. The campus is huge and feels it, but the bonus is you are in the heart of Minneapolis, which is a city with a great cultural, arts and sports scene. You can study anything here, but some of the better departments the school is known for are psychology, journalism, and its prestigious BFA Acting program in conjunction with Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater. Only 40 are accepted into each freshman class, and acting students are expected to also complete the University’s liberal arts required curriculum. Around a thousand kids will audition each year and Minnesota brings 80-90 of them for callbacks, which are conducted on campus. The result is, “our director has an understanding of really getting to know which students are a good match for the program,” says admissions officer Casey Erickson.

Carleton College is consistently one of the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country, and Forbes just listed it as the 16th-best college or university in the country. You’d be hard-pressed to get a better education anywhere else. The reason: Attention to detail in every academic department with faculty that are rated #1 in undergraduate teaching. Carleton has one of the top 5 math departments and its departments of geology, physics, biology and chemistry and also among the top in the country. Its humanities programs in English, History, and the popular departments of Political Science and International Relations are also exceedingly strong. Carleton has also recently opened a beautiful arts center that is home to its thriving performing arts community and houses an art collection. Oh, and Economics? “We’re the 2nd- or 3rd-ranked Econ department in the country,” says associate dean Charles Cogan. It’s an intellectual community of students that might be described as quirky but sports also matter here and truly, the student body is diverse in color and mindset.

St. Olaf, two miles down the road from Carleton in Northfield, MN, shares a commitment to wind energy with Carleton. Both schools derive the majority of their power from windmill power. St. Olaf has been around since 1874, when it a group of Norwegian farmers and pastors founded it with a commitment to thoughtful citizenship. The school hit its stride with its inclusion in the book “Colleges that Change Lives” in the late ‘90s. Music is big here: One-third of students participate in some type of choir, band or orchestra before they leave. The Oles are also the reigning Div. III cross-country national champions. It retains a strong identity with service and a reflection on what vocation, as opposed to career, means. “Conversations can take place here about spirituality and also about seeking meaning in what you’re doing,” says admissions rep Angelique Dietz. “It’s a safe environment for students to do that.”