At Carleton, we believe in the power of diversity to enhance our academic and residential life, to enrich our understanding of the world, and the engage the most rigorous thinking as we interact with people whose perspectives differ from our own.

Sometimes this means honoring the differences between students: hometown, ethnicity and race, religion, sexuality, socio-economic background, life experiences, academic passions, and more.

At other times, it's about recognizing the diversity within each person: the math major who attends Shabbat service every Friday and plays softball; the undecided first year student who falls in love with economics, then German, then geology; or the linguistics major who co-chairs the Black Student Alliance and studies abroad in Guatemala.

What binds students together is a desire to have fun, an exuberant attitude toward learning, and a genuine interest in the passions, hopes, and ideas of their peers.

In the first year class of 2014, Carleton drew students from 45 states and 23 countries. From these students:

• 52% are women and 48% are men
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• 22% identify as students of color (non-international)
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• 11% percent are the first generation in their families to attend college
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• 8.5% are international students
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• Someone in the class speaks: Bengali, Chinese, Dutch/Flemish, French, Hmong, Japanese, Korean, Marathi, Nepali, Somali, Spanish, Swedish, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese at home
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Carleton also supports campus diversity through a variety of offices and spaces, including: