Academics
Carleton in Their Own Words
To truly understand Carleton, talk to the people who know it best: our students.
We asked students to share their candid opinions about Carleton's student body, academics, campus life and more. Below is a cross-section of their uncensored comments.
Academics | Student Body | Campus Life | Choosing Carleton
Academics
- “The academic life at Carleton is rigorous, but I have yet to meet a teacher who is not willing to do everything he or she can to help you succeed. You definitely get what you put into it.” —Ben Picone '11
- “Carleton academic life is kind of like a 10 week relationship: the first couple weeks it is kind of confusing and you are still trying to decide if this is what you want. The next few weeks are fantastic--you feel like a better person than you were before. Then the last couple weeks are so intense that all you want is for it to be over.” —Ariel VandeVoorde '09
- “Some people find academics here to be very difficult and time-consuming, but to be honest, I'd like more challenging classes sometimes.” —Kristin Ginger '08
- “In the college search, I found it all too easy to forget that a good school meant a hard school. If I actually thought about it, I convinced myself that I wanted to be challenged. That belief has been tested here. Carleton is a really good school. Which means that it's hard. Classes are difficult. There's a lot of work. You learn faster than you ever thought you could. But the amazing part is the pause in the middle of writing a fifeen page paper, when I stop to realize, 'that soliloquy is beautiful.'” —Hunter Knight '11
- “Rigorous, yet rewarding. The main reason why Carleton academics are challenging is because of the 10 week trimester system. The shortened Carleton term makes it difficult to stay on top of course material. But, it is worth it! Professors are engaging, peers are inspiring, and one learns SO MUCH about oneself and the world.” —Lizzie Fink '10
- “Academics at Carleton are demanding, but entirely fulfilling. I transferred here, and the transition has been far from easy. I've been exhausted numerous times and had days where it just feels like too much. But when I reach the end of the term, I realize that the hard work is worth it. By accepting the challenge, I've learned more and expanded my intellectuality more than I previously thought was possible. Also, there is no competition here against students for performance, rather every student pushes themselves to do their best. You won't find this at most other top-tier colleges.” —Katherine Turnage '10
- “It varies by the classes that you take. I know some classes have 100 pages of reading every night and papers every week, while others have almost nothing. I would say that the easiest class in the 100 level is equal to an AP class in high school and above that the difficulty curve gets much steeper.” —Marc Boyce '11
- “Students don't compete for the best grade in the class; instead they help each other with their homework and study for tests together.” —Apolune Pajer '08
- “It's like a rollercoaster. Some days you are running around doing 50 billion things at once but other days you are curled up in the Nookery reading a book.” —Laura Barsness '10
- “The academics are hard, generally. There's a cross-section of classes with hard work and a lot of work. Intro classes tend to just have a good amount of work to make sure you understand the basic concepts, and it gradually gets harder as you go up in level. Comps [the comprehensive senior project], of course, is pretty difficult ... mainly because you have to plan and time-manage it yourself. Also, not every prof is amazing, but they all have redeeming qualities. You might not like someone's teaching style, but you might like their personality or they might be incredibly knowledgeable about a really cool subfield briefly covered in their intro class. Yeah, some of them are very particular or very hard graders, but they don't do it for fun, they do it because they're here to teach. Carleton doesn't require huge amounts of published research from profs, like a lot of schools do, so you know that profs are here to teach.” —Jane Sturges '10
- “Classes are difficult and you do spend a good amount of time on studying and homework but the profs really try to engage the students so that even in a lecture class you can yell out questions or comments and the professor will answer them and start a discussion. You also have to accept that you may try your best and still not get an A because there is not grade inflation here like at other schools but it is not like students are failing either, it is just not easy to get A's here.” —Lauren Kanner '08
- “We work really hard, but it isn't competitive, and people love what they're studying. Do be ready for four years of never quite being done with your homework.” —Mary Ellen Stitt '08
- “People like to work hard, but it doesn't define their life. It's more of "I got work to do, and I'm going to do a great job on it, but I'm not working on this to compete with other folks."” —Ezra Velazquez '10
- “Challenging. I spend so much time doing work, but I do have time to hang out and besides, the work is fun most of the time.” —Dan Levy '11
- “It's harder than high school, but most people handle the workload pretty well. There are times when it can be overwhelming, but you aren't forced to sacrifice your social life or well-being in order to do well in class.” —Emily Cogsdill '11
- “Very rigorous, but with academic supports such as writing assistants, prefects, group studying, and office hours to help understand material.” —Claire Hill '11