Workshop: Finding Your Sense of Belonging

Hi everyone, my name is Macaya Reznor. She, her hers and I'm also on the diversity and Inclusion Fellows. I'm also a graduate from Mac class of 2019, little bit about me. I'm originally from Missoula, Mt and mixed race, native Hawaiian and I am a first generation to college student as well. I said International Studies with a minor in political science and a concentration in human rights in humanitarianism.

Tell you a little bit about myself just so you're prepared for all the personal anecdotes I may add during the presentation.

Before we begin our discussion today we have McAllister like to begin group events with the land acknowledgement even as we proceed virtually.

So as we begin, we want to acknowledge that McAllister is located in St Paul, MN on the occupied homelands of the Dakota people as a way of honoring the land and his peoples, both ancestors and descendants, many of whom still make their home here today.

Awesome, so like Veronica mentioned. You know both of us went through the college search process and you know we ended up at McAllister but everybody is going to end up somewhere different. and I still remember that college search experience and understand that can be pretty stressful at times. So you're just not even sure where to start. So with this slide, just like the highlight that there's different types of institutions for starters, you may be thinking about a public or a private college, whether they're for profit or not.

You know whether there are four year or two year that could be important, depending on what kind of degree you're looking for, whether it's a bachelors of Arts or Sciences versus an associate's degree. There's also different types of Education, like is it, liberal arts, or is it a research University? Or is it like a trade school, sometimes called Vocational Technical Colleges?

I just remember the most most schools are going to have more than just one of these things, like for example, McAllister is a private.

Non profit four year liberal arts school that's four checkmarks is just there alone. So just important to start doing the research. Figure out what these things mean to you.

I hope you put you down the right path towards choosing the college that you feel like you belong to.

So like Veronica mentioned in the intro that we will start to breakdown the difference between big University or big colleges in small colleges and there are many different options to think about. Even within these categories, so smaller colleges can be fewer than 1000 students and larger universities could be more than 35,000 students West. Best for you depends a lot on your personality and your academic goals. Each school has its own personality and offerings, even at schools within the same size, we will discuss some of the typical experiences of big.

And small schools. But keep in mind that these are generalizations.

Now looking at the big college experience, typically they offer a wide variety of majors and courses. Well, stock libraries and state of the art research facilities. One thing to remember about big colleges is that the probably have to apply for a specific school within the entire University. For example, might apply for the school of Humanities. Are the school of engineering, whatever that's that University institution offers.

Is usually a variety of housing options, opportunities from dorms to on campus apartments, and many of these places will have a Greek life option where you can live in a house with lots of people.

Then you also have well funded sports programs, a wide range of student activities, and distinguished faculty.

So here are some other things to consider and some questions to ask yourself.

The pictures off at a big 10 University that offers everything from televised sporting events to countless degree programs. Or are you itching to break free of the high school fish bowl and enjoy the anonymity of coming of? Going to a really big school where you just want to thousands of students?

I thought about these two questions during my college search process. I love sports and I always thought it was so awesome to watch college sporting events on TV and I want to be in that crowd. So like that's definitely doesn't appeal to you is definitely something to consider. I also went to a small high school so for a time there I thought I want to do the complete opposite and just join the masses.

An angle to a larger State College, so of course, like during your process you might be thinking about a lot of options. That's completely OK.

Another important thing to ask yourself is are you a good self advocate? This is always important, but especially a large schools. Some students find this environment exciting all these opportunities. It's huge, but others might feel like overwhelmed with this, especially in introductory courses where you could be one of hundreds of students in a lecture Hall to succeed at a big college. Its most productive to know what subjects or general areas you're interested in before you apply. Like I said, You have to apply for that school, so you might have.

Get the start off from the very beginning in that certain discipline, students who do best in large colleges tend to be go getters who are not afraid to speak up and take advantage of the opportunities that are available.

Examples that this could be attending office hours, even if they are a top by teaching assistive's and search for research opportunities.

It's almost thought about the big college experience. If you're attracted to a college because of some famous faculty that you've been following.

It's important to do your research and find out the chances that you'll actually have to work with our faculty. It is uncommon or distinguished faculty to only teach.

Higher level classes and spend most of time doing their own research, so you may be spending a lot of classes with teaching assistants in that.

No, but without the whole point must be with that distinguished faculty off to do your research and see how long it take to meet them and if it's possible.

It does sometimes difficult to take classes in the apartments that are not part of your major and 'cause you know there's so many students they have to make sure there's room for them. So some courses that are not part of your major maybe require multiple signatures in approvals to get there. And there's also administrative red tape to be aware of which is.

It isn't always easy, sometimes just to take the classes or go down the path that you want. There may be kind of rules policies in place to stay within your major, so again, just things to think about for the big college experience.

Thanks Veronica, like she said, restart quest number one.

How far away do you wanna be from home? So yeah, I think about the types of transportation that you're willing to take. What's comfortable for you and also to consider the additional travel costs and have those discussions with your family.

I knew that I can emerging from Montana like I mentioned, so I was like I want to go out of state for a little bit and I knew that I would have to travel, but I didn't want to have to travel too far, but I didn't want, you know, kind of want to space so had to find the nice balance. So I made the decision to come here to McAllister, mostly because it was just one flight away. I was comfortable with that. There's also something I was able to manage with my family. Things to remember is that campuses are going to be closed for both winter break, which is sometimes like a month long.

And the summer breaks, so you have to think about those costs. And you know that moving and put that into your schedule.

Question 3.

Do you learn well in larger lectures or do you prefer smaller discussion based classes?

It could be difficult to get your aunt your questions answered in larger lecture halls, but it also can be, you know.

Harder to hide in smaller classes if you aren't fully prepared, so I thought about both of these when I was thinking about different colleges. I thought at 1st I have a large lecture Hall was going to work for me and I visited some tools that had that style and you know, I'm both an auditory individual learner and I'd like to be able to talk to people in class. Definitely something that prepared me for a job in admissions, so I definitely like the smaller classes better and that was that's my preference. In this way we a lot of 1 on one with the professors. You gotta bounce ideas off your classmates.

I just, you know, remember that you can't really hide in the back of the classroom when there's only ten of you. So and just things to consider.

Question five what top three academic programs do you find ideal? What major miners are you considering an for? Some students who want to double major is it's important to remember that like only some schools really have that path. Just going to check in and see if it's possible or how easy it is to double major. I thought that I wanted to do a double major, but then I end up picking a major with like.

One of the most group quiet Rick credit requirements, but I found it really easy to have really interdisciplinary classes and to layer them on top of each other so you know I had the science in the human rights and they just really fit well together. But I also had many friends who double majored and things that just you wouldn't think go together when I really good friends was both in math major Anna religious study is an she was able to do both.

Yeah, that was really cool. That's really cool thing about like some smaller schools.

Oh OK, I'm sorry. Yes, Veronica.

Music in psychology double major.

2nd category are your target colleges so these are you know schools in which your test grades. If testing is still required and your transcript transcript great grades are similar to those of a typical student admitted, so you have a good chance of gaining admission to these colleges along time these walls will reach out to you because your scores your test scores have populated in their database like when you take this 80 you probably notice that you got a lot of Mail.

Auto Mail from colleges. This is because you were in their target area, so I encourage you to do research on the schools, even if you've never heard of them and then just give 'em reply if you feel like you kind of belong there. This is definitely what happened to me for McAllister. I never heard of McAllister and then I got stuff in the Mail and here we are.

And then last is your reach school. So these are schools are typically have a larger pool of qualified applicants, and maybe your academic performance is like around or slightly lower than a typical student who's admitted. And even though the admissions process can be competitive, you should still apply to them if you feel like they're going to be a good place for you where you really belong. So many of these types of schools off also offer pretty good financial aid package, so even if you feel like you might be just outside the bubble, there's definitely incentive to apply for these schools.

So.

The Internet, lots of websites. Websites exist in general, but there are also many websites that can help you compare colleges and look up college information. There are also ranking websites for different types of schools. Consider looking into these organizations for the chance to future research your options. the College Board big future.collegeboard.org has a website with many helpful tools allowing you to research schools. They also offer a significant amount of resources related to sense of belonging.

As we discussed today.

This is probably the most comprehensive website for college investigation and exploration, and you should definitely check out the other websites that we have on that.

Paged screen, but also don't forget to check out a schools Instagram and Twitter page 2 those pages can help give you a good idea of what student life is like and can also help you identify a potential sense of belonging. I know that at Mac many of our academic Department, San student Orgs have their own Instagram or Twitter page, so that's a very helpful tool when you are possibly thinking about joining an org or two, or thinking about a Department just to see what student life is like.

That's always really fun.

Alright, last, but certainly not least, uhm, you know you may be like this is so much information on the first presentation, but you may also have a lot of questions, and that's OK. That's almost expected. So the next step is we encourage you to get in touch with your high school counselors. So just remember that it is their job to help you along this process, and they're usually really well equipped to send you in the right direction of resources. They know a lot about schools, and I usually keeping up to date with.

Um, new school policy is an scholarship opportunities and they usually have a pretty nice collection of Review Books. Kinda profile on each of the schools, and they're also going to be the ones you know when you know whether we have traditional visits or virtual visits are going to be the ones to let you know when certain schools that might you might feel like you belong to or going to come and visit.

Some of your high schools may even have connections to local universities and community colleges you know with knowledge about special funding or admissions offering, so definitely ask about those. And it's also important to start building that relationship with your high school counselor because they're going to be expected to send in a letter of recommendation for you, and it only helps them write a good letter for you if they know your interest in, like your thought process during the whole college search.

You know experience.

There you have it. That's the presentation, and we really hope that you found it helpful and now we are going to try to answer your questions. Feel free to keep submitting questions and don't be shy to ask for any clarification. We will try to answer as many as we can given the amount of time we have left and we will make note of any questions we don't get to an make sure we email you with a response. So let me switch my screen over.

Let's see, we have a question from Ryan here Ryan is asking, has Mac gone test optional macaya do you want to be the bearer of good news?

Yes.

Sister has decided to go test optional and I'm is really intentional. Decision by by the college. It's not just you know. I think Cove it kind of.

Push it along, but this is something we've been actually talking as an office for awhile now, so really excited about that.

Who?

All right, Emily here. How easy is it to double major? I can take this one since I double majored, um, super easy. I I'm not lying. It was pretty easy. A lot of courses are cross listed, so I knew I wanted to major in psychology right off the bat. So I started taking those classes and I was able to knockout some general requirements by taking my intro to psych classes. I was also a little bit on the verge about whether or not I wanted to major in music, so just to kind of dip my toe in the water. I took music.

Give me one my first year so without even knowing I was already checking of- requirements for my majors and my general requirements, so it's pretty common at McAllister to double major 2. About 1/3 of students do it and a lot if not all graduate on time.

Let's

I want to add something. Another tool is something once you know with your Mitt student will have access to this, but it's called degree work. Degree works right and it's just it's part of like your student account and it helps you keep track of what classes you've taken and which ones you need to take and fulfill. So every time you fill requirement which exit off for you. So it kinda like help you keep organized, just connected to the registrar's office every time you communicate with them, it keeps track of it and you can also do the what if option which let's you populate.

Yeah.

What if I took this art class? What will my graduation requirements look like? So helpful.

Degree works is definitely helpful and it sometimes a little difficult to navigate, especially as a first year when you're just given this website, so feel free to ask your advisor for help. That's what they are there to do in their super friendly and we have another question along the lines of double majoring. Rosie is asking if you pay more intuition if you double major, you do not. It cost the same.

Um, let's see.

Over here we have some questions about class size Nokia. What's our average class size?

It's pretty great, yeah?

The average class size is only 17 small.

Yeah, same as Veronica think my largest was probably like in the 30s. Um, smallest was three so.

Yeah, so especially intro classes can be very large to begin with because people need to take them for their majors or minors or just to knockout some general requirements. Those can be large like that. 40% Class I was in was a beginners physics class that all the non physics people were taking to fulfill the science requirement. But yeah and we also have a 10 to one student to faculty ratio.

Let's see.

How accessible are activities, jobs etc outside of campus?

You had an internship right? Macaya?

Oh

yeah.

Yeah, yeah, so I mean, there's yeah, there's definitely a couple options to get off campus one.

There's kind of two ways to find internships. Like if you're like to go get Aaron, you know where you want to internship. You could just.

Contact them also. It's pretty common around campus like on bulletin boards or through class emails like to be sent different opportunities. I come by way of the professors or the Department. That's one way and then also if you have no idea like how to start this process and you not even sure like where you want to Internet, you always go to the internship office and they have all like a database of word. Past alarm have gone and maybe where they work so I can help you find something and they can help you with their resumes.

Like good stuff.

Here.

When it comes to jobs off campus, we're in a really nice area. I really love mcalisters area and right in front of the campus is kind of like a hip strip of like small restaurants and shops and other places. And it's actually really common for students to have like part time jobs like I worked at the bakery across the street.

Shops stuff like that.

Yeah.

So we have a couple more questions about being test, optional and double majoring. So do you just want to explain a little bit more about what it means to be test optional?

Yeah, that literally just means you do not have to send us any tests. You don't have to.

One that means if you are considering McAllister only or other test optional schools, you don't need to take the test.

Yeah.

But just because bird test optional, if another institution is isn't, you know, I still think you should try to take the task you need it for those schools.

It just means you don't have to send us anything like through the College Board and you don't have to even like self report.

Yeah.

But if you do feel like your tests are a good representation of your academic.

Potential they can go ahead and share those with us.

Yeah, so Tiffany here is asking if tests are optional. Does that mean that other areas are weighted more now?

Uh, I wouldn't say that certain areas are weighted more than others. You know, we do. Holistic review admission, so that just means that we literally look at everything. We read everything in the whole that we do it the same time to me.

Application and we tag team those and it's really nice for able to discuss like Rock and I could discuss an application together. So just in case we don't miss anything on academic level, I think the biggest thing is to take away our.

You know, we look for students that are challenging themselves within what's available to them.

Yeah.

And then also looking at like consistent.

Performance or growth and our growth. You know something happened sophomore year. We get it. But you know, and strong a good mentality for life.

Yeah, so now just to get a little bit of a different kind of question. Can we talk about about this? Can we talk about the student culture?

Totally.

So, uhm, let's see it's a small school. We have about 2100 students, and as I mentioned in the presentation, you don't necessarily meet everyone unless you want to. But there are so many things to do at Mac. We have correct me if I'm wrong. 106 student orgs their cultural Orgs, Faith based ordering, service oriented organs, all the orders you can think of. There's literally everything and everything for everyone. And if there isn't, you can create your own org.

That's very common. That's all you have so many, because students will just create their own words to have something that that really defines them on campus. So yeah, do you want to share a little bit macaya?

Yeah, can you repeat the question? I apologize, I'm having some technical difficulty.

Oh no worries. Um, they're just asking about what the student culture is like.

Oh yeah, for sure yeah, so at least didn't work. I would say if you had to see the culture and like one sentence, it would be.

Very collaborative, like even in the social life aspect. So even within like student Orgs and just like your friend group people liked like work together and like help each other. So that was always really.

Yeah, nicely don't fall back on.

But also let you know the student culture. My calendar students are typically, like I say, go getters and they have a lot going on and sometimes it's self imposed.

I don't know about you, but between like you go to like Org meetings and your classes and you have a job and we have a sporran.

You have a very full schedule.

Like I said, both the time that self imposed. If you need to like to step back, that's also acceptable. Take care of yourself and your priority is so.

You can do a lot in your four years, but you can also.

Yeah definitely, definitely take care of yourself.

Um, let's see.

We have a couple of questions about how to find a school that's right for you, so I'll read a question that I have here. It says. How would you know exactly if a school is the perfect fit for you and we have others along those lines?

I have another one here.

Let's see.

Uh.

I saw it there.

It was basically asking if you are torn between schools. How do you decide? How do you pick which ones right for you?

Yeah, thank me hard.

I think.

Star Wars release at between here or home like the state, like the State University back home.

Mostly I think everybody's story is going to be different than mine really came down to like financial aid and like opportunities available.

For sure, and so. I mean, you may hear a lot from like McAllister student, so he would come there like financial aid like. No shame in that. We have a really great financial aid program. We need 100% demonstrated need. Yeah so this is very common answer wrong with that.

So you just depends on like. Again these kind of size. Are you looking for? It doesn't have the program you want? Is it where you want it to be?

You know?

The biggest thing you know we we love students who just feel like they belong somewhere. So it is great to like, communicate as much as you can, even if it is virtually with like current students or admission ticket that field.

Yeah, definitely agree with everything you just said. I think that it's very helpful to visit a school before making up your mind. I know that's not going to be the case now. I don't know how long we're not going to be able to visit campuses for, but I didn't visit McAllister an I still decided to come to McAllister, but I did spend a lot a lot of time on the Mac website on Google Earth walking down the streets that are around McAllister just to look at.

Would it looked like learning more about the Twin Cities since I wasn't familiar with Minnesota and I also took advantage of the opportunities to connect with current students and especially students in the areas of study I was interested in and asking them questions like the ones you're asking us about the student culture, what it's like to be in class with the faculty is like that's very important, and that's really what you want to talk about. So definitely reach out to your admissions counselor. There are really good resource they're able to connect you with current students.

A lot of things.

There you go.

Alumni, faculty, staff members as well. So take advantage of us like just email, email, email less. All of your questions. That's what we're here for.

So let's see, Allison is asking, can you each tell us about your favorite part of being at Mac? Good question.

Do you need some time to think? I have my favorite.

OK so I have many favourites but my ultimate favorite is midnight breakfast and so that happens fall semester right before Finals Week. It doesn't necessarily happen at midnight. It begins at like 10:00 PM and ends at midnight. But it's so much fun. The faculty and staff serve you breakfast food so late at night, every once in a really good mood because they don't want to think about finals. There's music. People move the tables out of the way. They dance is just a lot of fun, and it's like one of the ways that.

Mac makes sure that you're taking care of yourself and releasing stress during a stressful time, so that's one of my favorite times at Mac.

Our favorite thing about Mac OK?

I will just have to say it like the pretty continuous like constant support that I got from faculty and staff.

Because, you know, like I said, when I mentioned like a first generation students, so like be there. My parents went to a University and it's kind of like track in this area alone.

And when I showed up.

And just be like really overwhelming, like you're a little bit homesick and they got a lot going on. And so I just really relied a lot. Odom.

Different staff who are.

Good, you know people and help guide me, you know. And kind of like set me up to be who I am today which is, you know I appreciate a lot of what they do and now this is kind of amazing. I love being a staff 'cause it's just like part of the environment but also like with faculty because it is a small school you're able to have those one on ones and it's not always just academic. You know with my advisor.

Pop.

Of course, talk about like the class material or uhm.

You know planning class like planning future courses, but he had also just ask questions about Lake.

You can see it in your eyes, like Oh, you're not doing OK. Do you need to talk about something or can I help you find somebody to talk to or?

Like for example my sophomore year I had a semester where I had alot alot alot of work. It was a very rigorous semester and there was really no way possible for me to finish all my finals on time I just had that much work to do and that was self imposed again 'cause I took very hard classes all at the same time. Don't recommend.

And he that professor helped me communicate with my other professors and we get me on track with everybody else. And, you know, at first I didn't want to ask for help, but he.

How to set up a communication and so then I became more accustomed to ask you for help.

Thank you, so here we have a question from Emily. Um, they're asking how easy is it to get involved with activities on campus, IE clubs, music groups, etc. How accessible is it to get involved with Fine Arts groups on campus? If you aren't majoring in that fine art, I can begin by answering that fine art portion of the question. So especially I know that all of the Fine Arts programs welcome non Fine Arts music.

Majors or minors. For example, the music Department. You don't have to be a major or minor to take music lessons or play in any of our large ensembles or take classes in the Department. You're welcome to do so. You don't have to be in the theater Department. You don't have to be a major or minor to participate in the play. It's open to everyone. You know. The possibilities are endless. You can do anything you want when you're at Mac.

When was the first part of the question?

Yeah.

Yeah, so the first part of the question was how easy is it to get involved with activities on campus clubs, music groups, that kind of thing?

I'd say it's pretty easy. Is one like we, you know, encourage you to go to like student activities that our web page and have a list of like the student works and how to contact them, but also something I really like is the involvement fair and in the fall and the spring, but the following is a big one and this is when were on campus so we'll see how they're going to organize at this year, but.

Um?

Depending on what happens, right? But out in the big field, student works get to like set up tables and you just get to like, walk around and meet all the different student Orgs. And it's not just ignores, it's like those and.

Things in the community like you could volunteer with like.

Local schools will come and send reps like different nonprofits will send wraps and then you could like sign up with them. Then you're on the email list. I still was getting emails from student orgs that I never went to, but then I knew what difference you know we're doing campus, so I think that happens like within the first month.

Yeah.

OK, so here we have another question. If I'm thinking about research opportunities in the future, what type of college would be better? A big college or a small college?

I'm.

I personally think that has a lot to do with location really.

Yeah, location and.

I mean, just 'cause a smaller college has less physical space may be allowed to. It does not be in the like. Professors and students aren't doing the research.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's actually, you know, we even have a student who works in admissions who she was doing her research at the University of Minnesota. You mean? So that's just the space that she when did it from. But she was doing it for her McAllister degree.

So you have it better you know, like who? That's again, I think there should be a lot of other factors that go into play.

But I think it's still possible at both locations.

And a lot of times it just takes that little effort. Extra effort on your end too.

Learn with the faculty at like even a small school or working on and then see if there's room for you to help them. It's actually really commented McAllister, because like like Veronica said, there's less competition with graduate students for students to help professor so much so that they get to Co. Author it.

Right, so that's very cool.

Yeah, yeah, I mean.

There's no solid answer like go to a small college, go to Big College. It all really depends on what the college has to offer in their location. So I think my biggest piece of advice would be reach out to the people in your college. The career exploration center or civic engagement center. I'm not sure what other colleges call it, but they would be good resources. Again, you admissions counselor would be able to tell you a lot more about research opportunities, either within the college or within the area surrounding the college.

Mom, let's see.

I want to go to a bigger school, but I also want a small student to teacher ratio. Is there a middle option?

I I do think so.

What you're saying is pretty.

Unique so like I mentioned it in a bigger University you have to apply for like the school within this one, right? So let's say applied like the school of humanities, but within the humanities you like want us today like Ancient Greek.

Right, I mean like if you get more narrow down, maybe your classes start to get smaller and smaller and smaller.

Again, don't have that personal experience. My best advice is to again like just 'cause we're admissions counselors right for McAlester. Those message counts. There's other schools, so definitely if you have the bigger school mind like find somebody, reach out to there and then they'll be able to direct you to like the Department that you're most interested in.

I have another question. This one's a little different from the questions we've been asked before. It says. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a foreigner learning in a village or a big city? So I'm thinking what are the advantages? Disadvantages of an international student in a village or a big city?

I'm actually the first thing. Again, this is depends on where you're coming from. As an international student, if you're coming from a larger city.

Um?

I mean, it's possible both ways that maybe a larger city in the United States might also help with that transition, specially if you're dependent on public transportation like students make first year students actually aren't even allowed to like parked cars on campus, so it's actually really like most students don't have cars.

Places where they've never driven a car and it's just not really necessary here. 'cause we do have pretty decent public transportation and all your basic needs are met on campus for first two years. So if you're coming from big city as an international student and you have grown up using public transportation.

It may be more difficult to go to rural American.

Town where that's probably not going to exist.

I'm just keep that in mind so she you know the proximity to an airport, right? If you're planning on going home this for every student, but if I'm going home, you want to be.

You know choice to be relatively near an International Airport.

Also, within cities there's typically like resources that are very catered to International Expat Immigrant like people to reside there.

Right?

It.

Yep, all right here. We have a question. How common is it to take classes outside of your major like for fun?

It's quite common.

What like required a little bit.

Yeah, at least that magnet is.

Yeah, I think I mean.

Yeah.

I was International Studies Major, but because that is so broad internationalism, I think I only took like 3 or 4 International Studies classes.

So I took everything from my Russian study is too political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology, neuroscience.

History.

Yeah, I really like the flexibility that the general requirements give you because we do have general requirements, but it's not like you have to take this class like this English class or this math class like there are so many classes you can take to fulfill a requirement. I needed to fulfill my. I think it was like in Earth science requirement.

Or something like that, and I took a class.

And.

Um named the geography of environmental hazards only because the word earthquakes wasn't a description and I love earthquakes. So yeah, you can just take a class for fun like that. My roommate took a class named dinosaurs her senior year just for fun because she still needed to fulfill that requirement. So yeah, it's very common to take classes outside of your major for fun. You have the time to.

Yeah, pretty sure for the for the final for dinosaurs like depending on where you are in your science background you can do like a paper or you can make a children's book about dinosaurs.

So.

Yeah.

I'm just too much about things they like you know may not be really your thing.

Can you still get their credit but not?

Yeah, so here we have another question. How do you decide what majors get you good jobs? Do you want to talk a little bit about the career exploration center and their resources?

Yeah.

I'd like to just start by saying having a college degree is already a pretty impressive feat, and obviously encouraged in our society, and you can get jobs.

Again, just like with everything in life, like putting yourself in the position to talk to the right people and like do your research. Like definitely will just help in any major you choose.

Uhm, but yeah, the career exploration center is pretty similar to like a lot of our other services where if you have like I mentioned earlier, you don't have to declare major until the end of your sophomore year, right? There's a lot of time to like change your mind.

And even then, it's like you should stick with the major, but I've known people change their major senior year so things happen.

But you have no idea where to begin. Your first year you go check out the career development center and they have a really well.

You have the review books of different.

They create careers you might be interested in, and they can tell you like where what majors like those. Those one had their really great about giving you like sample resumes or sample cover letters, and then they put on the top. You know this person was a Mac Alam who studied Poli Sci and then this is the job there right now so.

Really great about like searching for those things, uhm?

Everything had him.

Yeah, I'm definitely the career exploration center staff or able to help you with that if you're not sure about a certain major, you can ask them they have access to all of our alumni network so they can tell you where are alumni ended up after majoring in that specific area of study. In some cases you are able to connect with the alumni as well.

Yeah.

Ask them questions, see what they did during their time at maxi, how they ended up where they are, so that's very helpful AMA, let's see.

We have a pretty easy question. What division is your sports teams? So we're in the D3 Division Three. Pretty simple answer.

Yeah.

That means that there's no. You know, that just means that there's no athletic scholarships, right? Actually, Veronica and I were both Mac athletes for a couple of years.

I came down with a chronic injuries, but you know, but the training staff was really supportive during. I had a couple of injuries and they were great.

Oh yeah.

And it's still competitive environment. There still are asked from you like physically like you have like 6:00 AM lift sometimes and you gotta just.

But you know, sometimes you wake up fresh after that.

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I think that the biggest thing I could say about at least athletics at McAllister is that it will. It will not get in the way of your academics like you're a student first. Then you're an athlete. You're called a student athlete for a reason. Like your coach is not going to make you miss a class or not going to tell you you can't skip practice because you have a lot of Reading.

Or you have to prepare for an exam that you're nervous about, like that's not going to happen, their understanding, and they know that your academics come first and that was something I really valued.

Also, our athletes tend to perform very well academically.

Amazing time management skills.

You know academic honor, so yeah.

Yeah, OK. Let's see. Can you talk a little bit more about mcalisters location? Some pros and cons and how it compares to other areas?

I mean, I think the pros that were in the Twin Cities.

Right, I mean, that's that's what threw me to the area as well. Like I'm like, I said from Montana, like not from the biggest city. I just wanted to be able to go to like professional sporting events. You have them like everything like basketball, football, baseball, hockey, soccer, everything. So that's nice. And then.

Are telling only a con that I experiences.

It has built approach to it right? Is that where we're located in Twin Cities and a nice Hyatt residential neighborhood, and so I found that helpful when you're just in the school mode.

You know, uh, because it's quite. It's not distracting. But then, like you know, it's not terribly far, but you still take a bus to like. Go to Minneapolis, right? But?

Yeah.

Some students really prefer to be like in the city, like downtown, and those are options for you.

Yeah.

So as I mentioned earlier, am from Ellie, I'm from a pretty big city and I knew that I needed a big city. I didn't want to live somewhere quiet, so McAllister was perfect for me because it's still in the cities 2 cities, but they are way smaller, and as micaiah mentioned in the neighborhood, were in a super quiet, so I wasn't surrounded by all of these distractions, but there's still a lot of things to do, like museums, restaurants, concert venues, the Mall of America as well, so there's always something to do. We have a new stadium, the soccer stadium, all eons.

Field a couple blocks away from McAllister, so that's really fun and just to tie it kind of to another question we have here. Public transit is super reliable over here. We do have to bus stops at the corner of campus. They could take you to downtown Saint Paul, connect you to the green line, which takes you to either downtown Minneapolis, downtown Saint Paul, super accessible. We also give our students subsidized bus passes so you're only paying for half of what the normal fare is like. So yeah, it's I think the location is really amazing.

And the only con for me coming from a warm place was the weather, but with the right gear everything was fine.

Yeah.

I'm surprised it hasn't been asked yet.

OK.

Yeah, your cheering.

You can make it. We all survive, you know you just bundle up, don't expose the skin.

Yes.

Yeah, OK, so where there are a lot of study groups available for tougher classes? Slash, did you participate in them? Yes and yes.

Yeah.

Old are you have you have you like your group, you know. Uhm, I think the most noticeable group are the ones in the pre Med track. They're tighten it.

So they're always working together.

Uhm, but it's always good just to like as you go further into your major you sent start to have classes at the same people a lot so.

You know?

Yeah.

Yeah, so a lot of classes have a preceptor who's like a teachers assistant who also holds office hours and you can go talk to them. They usually during the evening whereas professors hold office hours during the day. So you can go talk to them. They can look over your paper, they can help you prepare for an exam before really big exams. Sometimes they hold study groups so you can go to the study group with your preceptor or people in the class will announce that they'll have a study group. And even if you're not close friends like, you can still show up and contribute and everything is fine like no one is going to say no, you can't study with us like.

I don't think that ever happened. I doubt it will ever happen here. Everyone is just super friendly and collaborative.

Um so.

Another

outside of just like your classes, many academic departments will host social hours within the Department, so like.

I used to like the history tease.

Or was it who worked Department is Chai time.

Oh, the I think that's.

Fast.

I can remember.

Yeah.

I can't sorry. There's like times you know were you know, like after classes you just get together and have tea or snacks and just like talk about history allowed to have things like that.

So here's a really good question. How diverse is Mac in terms of culture, slash, nationalities?

It's pretty pretty diverse for such a small community. It's about 2100 students and students are coming from all 50 states, 98 different countries.

1/4 of students will have some citizenship outside of the United States, so either their international or the dual citizens, so definitely international front. Pretty diverse, and.

About 35% of our domestic students identify as people of color.

So I think and also like diversity means so much more than just like racial, ethnic, national identities, we like to think about what students are going to contribute to campus from their interests, where they're coming from.

Majors are interested in like a bunch of things.

Yeah, so along those lines someone is asking is there severe discrimination against Bipac and LG BT Q Plus people?

So we I would not say there severe discrimination at all.

I will start with the UM.

That's right.

As as people who don't identify with a bipod community, you know we do have a lot of discussions about.

Within larger in positions to have these long histories, there are like Microaggressions, another you'll probably hear from students, and of course, that's something like we're always trying to work on and like just be better as an institution.

They're not afraid to bring those up and bring attention to those, which I think is likely powerful. Really great, and should definitely continue.

Anything this like support like 4 different communities like socially, LG, BT Q Plus Community I actually remember was a different student tours the Sexuality Resource Center. Even within a durable edges and spiritual life they have a lot of support for people over Queer people with being with you know, actually had this one. Memory is probably my glove, McAlester was because.

There so on the sidewalks around campus that is public streets, right? So anybody can be on there. We can't make people leave and so there were protesters from the West.

Go to church.

Some church people, folks warum like protesting against or LG BT community. And it's like hard for us to see, but we can't make them wait, and so students really like rallied around them like really rallied around them to just kind of like question them and just say, like you know, we don't tolerate that kind of discrimination and bigotry like on campus. And we're going to stand up for.

So.

Like

Yeah, was that also the same day that allies, um lined up into line so that students felt comfortable? Those students that didn't feel comfortable with the campus where people just like walking between them and they like cheered the MoD. And oh, it was such a good day on campus. I mean, not the protesters, but just like that feeling of community was so heartwarming.

yeah for sure.

Let's be so. We have a few more minutes. How does the student body get involved in the Greater Twin Cities area?

I mean, there are organized ways. If you don't know where to start, you can go to the Civic Engagement Center and find out about events that are either hosted by or associated with the college on.

One of my favorite things to do was to either check out the information desk and sometimes you know they have an electronic board. That's like go to the were giving free tickets to the Guthrie or free tickets to the State Fair, or subsidized tickets to a basketball game so you can just kind of see the things that are going on and then they really encourage you to go out there. I also really like program board. They are a branch of our student government and they just have the funds to go do fun things.

So like rent a school bus and just like packet full of students in like go to a museum or go to the aquarium or go ice skating.

So that was helpful. Also encourage students just to like explore on your own as what I did for a lot of times, I just hop on buses and just go.

Obviously be safe, think another triple. Take care yourself.

Buddy system.

Yeah buddy system.

Thank you so very quickly. This question has been asked three times, so we'll go back to the whole double majoring major. When do you pick a major if I want to enter the Faculty of Medicine, then when will I pick a specific major? Majors are confusing. They are confusing. That's totally OK. You don't have to declare a major until the end of your sophomore year, so you have that time to like. Figure out whether or not you're really committed to the major. So yeah, some students come in decided they declared the major when they get to campus. You can do that that first week when you meet your advisor.

Or you can wait up until the end of sophomore year to declare your major. Uhm. I had other major major related questions. Do you recommend double majoring? If it's what you want to do?

Do it. No one stopping you and you don't pay double, so why not that double major?

I need to consider is like if you were just wanting to dabble. I'm going to take a class or something acceptable. If you're wanting to show later on, like on a transcript resume that you have spent spent those years formulating a lot of critical thought around that discipline, then maybe consider like a major double major oranges add on a minor.

Yeah.

Like we said, well, small schools you can hurt the develop, develop your own major.

Um or your own path of study by how you combine different departments so it's kind of what you want to show off to the world afterwards. How is how you're going to put them together?

So I'm asking if we're going to get kicked out right at 4 just in case we are. You have our email addresses but will be here just because I still see that everyone's here. So we'll keep talking. I just want to make sure we know when this is going to.

Shut down on slate. Let's see the AC just turned of- and I heard myself screaming. I'm so sorry.

What are the dorms like? Can you tell us a little bit about living on campus?

It feels like it's been so long.

I'm so pretty nice.

Do you wanna start or do you wanna start with the residential requirement?

OK so one uhm to keep mine. So McAllister like a lot of residential schools require. Requires two years on campus. So the first year you will be put in a dorm.

There's there's very little flexibility around that. You can always ask. It's a case by case you know situation, but we encourage students beyond the campus because like.

Not just learning in the classroom, which is also like you could roll out of bed and just like run to class, which is nice, but you also like learning from people in your dorms. Your roommate is part of the whole experience.

Um, so you'll be in a dorm. There is a three major dorms of assigned for first years, and that's Turk.

A dirty and Dupree I remember and most of those from Turkey and Dodi are going to be doubles, and they have sinks in them even though he right.

Yeah.

I'm sorry it's been much time there and um.

That's really nice. 'cause they're not everybody's fighting over the sink in the bathroom. You have your own little personal sink and then most of the floors are Coed. You know there's going to be both like male and female people, and there's like this. There's gendered bathrooms, but your roommate will be from the gender that you have.

Shared with us and so.

You know it's just nice 'cause they have like a lounge. They have little kitchens and we hung out in my lounge all the time. Watching football games or like just doing our homework or cook cooking like Oh, there's a good story. I grew up in Montana I had never met anybody before. Who was Jewish just fact and so I had quite a few Jewish friends on that first year floor and then they like taught me how to make like lock key and stuff.

And you know, so it's more like potatoes for like a week, but that's OK.

And then your uhm, then Dupree is like a single. You're kind of like in your own little single space, with also a lounge.

Yeah.

And some of them actually are open rooms where you can have three or four people, so their triples or quads, so couple different options that is randomly assigned. Well, it's not completely random, it's based on what first year course urine.

Which is arm.

I can just keep on the rabbit hole of information, but I'm going to stop there and then your software. You can either choose a single for yourself you can roommate can choose a double for yourselves, or you can apply to live in some specialty housing. So some of those are language houses. So like if you've been practicing Spanish, when you really, really want to get into it like you can live in the Spanish House, where they'll expect that you speak in Spanish like you do like you know cooking.

And stuff together. There's also one thing the veggie Co-op, earlier rate only clicks vegetarian and.

The interface house.

And then for those who, there are some. Uhm, like people who like gender nonconforming, there are some floor and bathroom options.

Yeah, so something kind of related to living on campus. Where did that question go physically? How iaccessible able are you able to traverse? Is the Mack campus. So how physically is iaccessible? Is it do either of you have experience with this to compare at other colleges so our campus is pretty small.

Uhm, it's super easy to get to one place from the other. You don't really have to wake up early and it's really great when you live on campus because you could just wake up like 10 minutes before and dash to class.

I don't recommend.

Don't be that person, but if it warrants, OK.

Copy.

Um, also during the winter or facilities crew do a really good job of cleaning up the snow so that you're not like hiking to class. You just like walk on a really flat sidewalk. That's really wonderful. I toured many big colleges back in California with Hills and everything looks flat here. Super easy. You'll get your steps in, but you won't be walking miles to get to Class. I was having a virtual meeting with my friends last week that went to big colleges in California.

And she said she would have to walk 15 minutes speed walk to get to class on time. and I was like no, we had 10 minutes between classes and I would go outside and chat and grab a coffee and still make it on time like it's wonderful, um?

Yeah.

Do you have something to add?

Children majority if not all.

Buildings do have like a like elevators.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ramps and some some areas of the building no longer buildings are old. You're like most universities right? And so they found ways to integrate that except ability.

Yeah.

I yeah I would say it's it's iaccessible and that's from personal experience. I had surgery right before senior year so I was on crushes my first month of senior year and I still got to class on time I didn't even have to ask to leave early and the elevators made it super easy. So pretty acceptable.

Yeah, I had two bouts of crotches too.

Yeah, so let's see, um, will take maybe two more questions. Makaio do you have 5 more minutes?

Yeah.

OK, so let's just take two more and then we will wrap up and I know there are still questions that haven't been answered. We will make sure to get to them by the end of the week so you will get an answer to your question. This is a really sweet question. How easy is it to make friends as a reserved person?

I think it's pretty easy, I mean.

Um, somebody who I think is like somewhat introverted and extroverted, I can like really swing both ways.

I thought at the beginning it was really nice. That way you, like you lived clear people because again like maybe you've left home and you miss your family and there's like a lot going on. It's just nice to have like.

Familiar faces a lot of times, and so for many of the first year courses there residentials that means that everybody in that course is going to live on the same floor as you, and maybe your roommate will probably be from that class and at least in that note, you're going to know like that group of people from the very beginning.

And you know, I mean, when you live with somebody, you definitely get to know them.

So it's kind of hard not to get to know them.

It.

And there are more.

I know I think the question that we get a lot of time, so I'm going in too much detail, but like what's the social party scene at McAllister? Well, here's the deal. You guys will be adults or well, eventually will be regulated. Have to make your decisions for yourself. Tom is just going to make coffee. Just be responsible and take care of your health. OK? But for students who maybe aren't as interested in seeking out those kinds of experiences like Howser doesn't really good job of offering alternatives. So like on Fridays and Saturday nights like.

In the link there's like a.

Like I've gone to improv shows, those are some of the funniest thing I think I've ever been to McAllister there. So funny.

Terry silent disco parties.

Where everybody listen to their own music, it Just Dance. Have you ever done one of those were fun?

Trivia nights like.

So there's there's always like an alternative to like what the?

Ah.

Typical college experience is supposed to be.

Yeah, I think a really good example of that is like we have winter formal and that's a dance that takes place off campus and not everybody wants to do that. Not everybody wants to.

Go somewhere else in dance there, and that's totally understandable, and so program bored sometimes will give free tickets to a movie instead, or they'll have another event on campus just so that you're still doing something else but something you're a lot more comfortable with. Uh, let's see. We had I had a really good question here.

Um?

222

How much does the weather in surrounding environment affect your mood and overall attitude?

Like I said, everybody survives the winter.

Yeah, and I.

And I'm.

Let me just do it. I would just like to say that if you've never experienced deep, deep winter, I think people should because it's a very humbling experience and you do a lot of personal growth during some of these winters. I've always had winter, the Lake Minnesota winters do like.

Um?

Their humbling, for sure.

Yeah, I think that you know it does get cold. It does get dark, but life goes on. There is still a lot to do on campus, even off campus. And what's really nice is that you can rent a happy lamp from the library so it kind of like resembles the sun and you could take it to your bedroom, your dorm just to keep you warm and have something to look at. And that's very good for people that move from warmer climates like myself just so that they don't go into seasonal. Is it seasonal depression?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, they lack vitamin D, so all of that can be fixed with a will not fixed or it could be remedied with a happy lamp, so would recommend check out the library and you can also check out a bicycle for the summer time or the springtime. You could walk around be with nature. It's pretty fun.

At least understand.

I'd also recommend that you, I mean not working, sorry, just remember 2 is that it's actually really sunny here during the winter album, a place where it like it's really cloudy and I was like oh winter, but like here it's deceiving sometimes it's like negative 20 and really sunny out, but at least there's that son Yeah and then also you know some of the funniest memories. I think I had was this one professor who was.

Is during the vortex time. You know we had like that happen in the Midwest.

And she was like, you know, I understand if you can't get yourself here, whether it's like because of the snow or you just can't. But if you do make it, I have a competition for the classes. How many items of clothing you can wear to class?

And so I had on like 4 pairs of pants and like multiple shirts and sweaters and my coat. And like multiple hats on my head. It was just like it was a joke. I was really warm.

Nice, um, let's see this is going to be the last question we answer and then will rap everything up. So what do you think makes McAllister unique from other schools?

This is such an easy question. I love this question.

OK, will you go first then?

I'll give you some time. Our location that definitely makes us unique. There are many liberal arts colleges, but if you look them up, not all of them are going to be right in the cities, so that's definitely something we have going for ourselves and also our student body. I mean, 15% of our students are international students, as micaiah mentioned earlier, 25% of our student body hold citizenship of a country outside of the USI believe this year, 39% of the incoming class.

Identify a students of color. So it's I mean, I think it's a pretty diverse place. I really enjoyed my time at because of that.

Yeah, I think it kind of mind feedbacks off yours is just a.

A lot of schools or organizations in general are going to have a mission statements right? And everybody has them and then like on the website and maybe you don't know what they are. But if you can ask anybody on campus if you walk by what is mcallister's mission statement and they can list off the four pillars you know. Academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism and service to society like everybody will just rattle them off. And because it is that deeply ingrained into part of the reason why they chose McAllister and came and how they.

Yeah.

You know, go about their day. Go about their time at McAllister. I really thought about those things in the classes I chose. Study away. You know, the relationships I've built. It's definitely not forgotten.

OK OK OK.

Yeah, so you mentioned study away very quickly and this will be officially relax question we do have study away programs happens your junior year. You're welcome to study away if you would like to do it. We have a study away office with super helpful staff to help you figure out a locational program based on your area of interest. So yeah.

That's it, uh, we will get back to those questions. We did an answer. Thank you so much for joining us will be in touch. Feel free to email us with more questions if you have any. I really enjoyed being here with you all.

Yeah, same.

Or morning.

I'm her good evening or whatever time it is. If you're so, when I don't.

Wherever you are, have a good one.

Hi.