Macalester College

Coordinates: 44°56′21.07″N 93°10′4.70″W / 44.9391861°N 93.1679722°W / 44.9391861; -93.1679722 Macalester College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, US. It was founded in 1874 as a Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian college. Its first class entered September 15, 1885. Macalester is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 1,978 students in the fall of 2013 from 50 U.S. states and 90 countries. The school is known for its large international enrollment and has one of the highest percentages of foreign students in the United States.

In 2015, U.S. News & World Report ranked Macalester as tied for the 23rd best liberal arts college in the United States, 6th for undergraduate teaching at a national liberal arts college, and 19th for best value at a national liberal arts college.

History

Macalester College was founded in 1874 by Rev. Dr. Edward Duffield Neill, who served as a chaplain in the Civil War and held positions in three U.S. presidential administrations. After journeying to the Minnesota Territory in 1849 to do missionary work, he founded two churches and served as the state’s first superintendent of public education and first chancellor of the University of Minnesota. He believed that only a private college could offer both the academic quality and the values needed to prepare students for leadership. He planned a college that would be equal in academic strength to the best colleges in the East. It would be Presbyterian-affiliated but nonsectarian, making it inclusive by the standards of his day.