In a League with Pomona College, Amherst, and Middlebury
Small Undergraduate Population, Expansive Cowling Arboretum
Excellent and Diligent Professors
Trimester System—Numerous majors
High Production of PhDs and NSF Winners
Even in the sub-zero frigidity of a Minnesota January, brains are exuding energy in Northfield, a town about 40 minutes from Minneapolis and St. Paul. ‘Carls,’ Carleton students, also known as “northern commies” by more conservative elements who find their politics a touch too left leaning, have just begun their second trimester. If you can weather the Minnesota winter, and find enjoyment in talking with some of the most intellectually engaged students in the country, “serious students who don’t take themselves too seriously,” then Carleton College might warrant being added to any application list which includes the likes of Pomona College, Swarthmore, Middlebury, or Amherst.
Its student numbers are comparable to Williams College, with just over 2,000. Like Swarthmore, Carleton contains an arboretum: Cowling Arboretum is 880-acres and is directly adjacent to the college. All told Carleton consists of 1,040 acres, a fairly spacious campus for its 2,000 undergraduates. The campus also includes a Japanese Garden, the Goodsell Observatory, listed on the National Historic Trust, and two utility grade wind turbines, substantially reducing the campus’s carbon footprint and generating close to half of the campus’s energy needs.
Carleton is noted for its natural sciences and political science departments. With no graduate students, teaching is done by the faculty; its focus is on teaching. Teachers at Carleton are “approachable” and “generous with their time”. On Rate My Professor.com, Carleton professors, as a group, score 3.54 in “Overall Quality”. (Yale professors score 2.59; Harvard, 2.95, Pomona College 3.59 and Amherst, 3.8). One of the many recommended professors is Al Montero, who teaches a challenging introductory course to political science, grades severely, yet appears universally loved. One student mentions Professor Montero as, “…a flawless professor. All his colleagues know it and his students do too. Is it scary to have a professor who is flawless? Yes. Is it amazing? Yes.”
Most classes at Carleton are small: over 60% have fewer than 20 students, with the average class size of 17. Carleton has no formal course requirements, and few distribution requirements. Though similar to Hampshire College and Brown University, once a major and concentration is determined, the student meets with her department advisor and the required course path is configured. A BA is offered in 37 majors, and students can elect to design their own; additionally, students earn a ‘concentration’ which comprises interdisciplinary study in such subjects as neuroscience, or European Studies. More impressive still, Carleton offers 12 foreign language courses from Russian to Arabic. Over 70% of Carls study abroad.
Carleton nurtures success in its students. Its most recent class produced 7 Fulbright Scholars, and the highest number of National Science Foundation fellowships in the country. It regularly graduates more women who pursue a PhD in the natural sciences than either Dartmouth or Princeton (each of which graduates twice as many women). Overall, 70% of Carleton graduates go on to graduate school, most in PhD programs, not MBA type programs. Apparently, the Carleton natural sciences department's emphasis on field and lab work gives it substantial advantage over larger, research-driven universities. However, don’t think this display of academic excellence is serendipitous-- almost a fifth of Carleton’s recent class was composed of National Merit Scholars-- that’s a number greater than any other liberal arts school in the country.
Yes, its cost of attendance (COA) is over $54,000, but more than half the recent class received need-based financial aid—over $27,000 was given in grants and scholarships. Also, Carleton charges no application fee for students who apply online, and it’s on the Common Application—so, to test the water costs nothing but time, compared to Stanford’s $90 application fee.
If the cold doesn’t kill you, then Carleton might give life to your undergraduate career. With a beautiful campus containing its own arboretum, a Japanese Garden, and the first campus night club, The Cave, there is always too much to do. Yet the excellence of the teaching, the small classes, the broad selection of majors, and the study abroad program make Carleton an alluring place to spend four years building a base for a lifetime of learning.