Macalester College: A Saint Paul Liberal Arts Institution at a Glance

Macalester College is a private liberal arts college located in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, it is an exclusively undergraduate institution with 2,068 students enrolled in fall 2025, according to the supplied source material.

The college traces its origins to Edward Duffield Neill, who founded Macalester with assistance from the Presbyterian Church in Minnesota. Its institutional background includes Scottish and Presbyterian roots, while its stated educational priorities center on internationalism, multiculturalism and service to society.

As of 2026, Macalester lists 38 majors, 40 minors and 11 concentrations. Students may also create an individualized major, giving them an alternative to the college’s established programs. The source describes the school as a liberal arts institution, but does not identify particular departments, courses or student organizations in the material provided.

Macalester’s main campus covers 60 acres in Saint Paul. Summit Avenue forms its northern boundary, St. Clair Avenue its southern boundary and Snelling Avenue its eastern boundary. The campus is therefore situated within a defined city setting, rather than functioning solely as a residential or remote college site.

The college also operates the 300-acre Ordway Field Station. The nature reserve and research station is located on the outskirts of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi River, extending Macalester’s institutional footprint beyond its central campus.

In athletics, Macalester’s teams compete at the NCAA Division III level in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The supplied information does not describe individual sports, team records or athletics facilities.

For Saint Paul readers, Macalester is best understood as one of the city’s undergraduate educational institutions, with a long history, a compact urban campus and a separate field station tied to nature and research. Its stated commitments to internationalism, multiculturalism and service provide a broad framework for understanding the college’s public identity. The available source does not provide specific information about LGBTQ+ programs, policies, student groups, campus climate or services, so no conclusions about those subjects can be drawn here.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “Macalester College” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macalester_College The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.macalester.edu/whatshappening/press/2010/September17SustainabilityPlan.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20100830062438/http://www.macalester.edu/igc/markimhall/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20130705202717/http://www.macalester.edu/internationalcenter/statistics/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20130706144115/http://www.macalester.edu/multiculturallife/lgbtq/allgenderbathrooms.html - https://web.archive.org/web/20130705182638/http://www.macalester.edu/sustainability/policy/policymain.html - https://www.macalester.edu/admissions/financialaid/ Image rights Photograph description: Old Main, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul Creator: Appraiser. License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOld_Main%2C_Macalester_College.JPG. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.