Carleton College Admissions

I came up to stay with my sister, a senior at the time, over Halloween and we got dressed up and went with her friends to the concert in the Chapel. It was the perfect display of Carleton's personality: a thousand college-aged kids in the most inventive and elaborate costumes crammed into a spooky Chapel listening to the orchestra creak out Halloween tunes. The place went wild when President Oden took the stage dressed as Indiana Jones, and victory in the rowdy costume contest went to the volleyball team, who came dressed as our Solar System, with some football player in the center as the Sun. I was struck hard by how un-self-conscious everyone was in their unflattering but impressively-clever costumes. To me, that implied the kind of openness and comfort-level that I never felt among my high school classmates, and that was enormously appealing.

Yes, I visited twice. I remember attending a Harry Williams class, and being in awe (and slightly frightened) of such a thought provoking person who was readily challenging his students, something I hadn't experienced at that magnitude in a long time. Also, the evening activities were a blast during my visits. I managed to go rock climbing, watch a great play (The Exonerated), a hilarious horror movie at SUMO (Dawn of the Dead), attend a Stimson House Party, and talk with other prospies late into the night at Sayles. If my life at Carleton could be half as fun as that night, I figured that the school would be a good fit for me.

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.

When I visited campus, I went to a dance rehearsal to get an idea of what dance was like at Carleton. I was peeking through the windows hoping they wouldn't see me, but all of a sudden the music stopped, and they all came out and dragged me into the studio. They asked me my name, where I was from, and what kind of dance I liked to do. They answered all of my questions about the school and stopped their rehearsal for that night to teach me something they had been working on. I thought that if they were typical Carleton students, then I wanted to be here too.

If possible, visit schools you are applying to. Admissions tours will be great everywhere but nothing will be more valuable than interactions with the students. I recommend an overnight stay if possible.

My visit was one of the main reasons I chose Carleton. I stayed with members of the swim team, and thoroughly enjoyed the two nights that I spent on campus. One of the best things about Carleton is the people here, and the Carleton students I prospied with were some of the friendliest and most intelligent people I've ever met. If you're seriously considering Carleton, stay a night and meet as many people as you can!