My overnight stay on campus is what sealed the deal for me. I visited in January of February of my Junior year in high school, and I remember it was -17° with a -35° windchill on my tour (I was wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and a stocking hat). I spent two nights with soccer players and attended various classes and I was content. I thought, "Hey, if I'm this happy to be here and it's almost 'To Build A Fire' cold, this must be a really great place." And that was that.

I visited on a COLD day in mid-April my junior year. Throughout the tour I was thinking how cold and miserable it was, but when I got in the car to go back to the airport that day, I realized what a great place I had visited.

I visited the campus twice, once in the Winter and once in the Spring for accepted students week. Since I was a football player, it was easy for me to meet other people and I enjoyed both my stays very much.

I visited campus to have an interview and a tour. The lady at the desk said, "Your interviewer wasn't able to make it, so Paul said he would just fill in." My immediate reaction was disappointment. I came all this way for an interview, and I was going to get Paul the backup interviewer, the pinch hitter. Disheartened, I was led into a room where an older man in a blue blazer sat behind a desk. The interview went smoothly, and at the end, Paul gave me his card in case I had any questions. As I left the office, I peered down at the card and realized that "pinch hitter Paul" was none other than Paul Thiboutot, Dean of Admissions!

I visited the campus twice. I was intrigued by the appearance of Schiller. I also visited an excellent math class, where I learned Gaussian elimination, and an excellent English class, where we discussed the plot structure of short stories. I stopped random students on the sidewalk and asked them how they liked Carleton. They all professed extreme love for their school and told me how happy they were, and they were extremely friendly.

I visited the campus twice and stayed overnight once. I stayed on a Sunday night, and I definitely got a taste of a typical day in the life of a Carleton student. My host, Dana, had to meet with a group to study for a Bio test. Meanwhile, her roommate spent several hours working on an English paper that she couldn't get just quite right. At the same time, several of their floormates watched a movie while finishing homework in the lounge. I didn't know it at the time, but this was exactly how most Sunday nights at Carleton would be for me.