Academic Preparation and College Credit

Academic preparation

Many factors (recommendations, essays, interviews, leadership potential and abilities, and extracurricular activities) are considered in our evaluation of each applicant’s admission credentials.

Macalester recommends (at minimum) a secondary school curriculum with four years of English, three years of history or social science, three years of mathematics, three years of laboratory science, and two years of a single foreign language. In addition, applicants are expected to have taken at least some of the honors or advanced courses available at their secondary schools.

Receiving College Credit

For students admitted to Macalester through the first-year admissions program, Macalester will accept for credit a maximum of thirty-two (32) Macalester credit hours from courses earned at a college or university prior to matriculation at Macalester. Summer session college credits, Minnesota Post-Secondary Education Options Program credits, International Baccalaureate credits, and Advanced Placement Program credits are included under this limitation.

For more information, refer to the Registrar’s website.