| 1917 | As America goes to war, Carleton agrees to host for the duration a unit of the Student Army Training Corps, which permits students to finish college while receiving military training. |
| 1917 | Completion of a new dormitory for women. It will be named Nourse Hall in 1923. |
| 1918-19 | As WW1 ends, influenza epidemic claimed 20 million lives, 500,000 in the United States. Among its victims is popular Carleton professor of Biblical literature Fred B. Hill. |
| 1919 | Dancing is permitted on campus for the first time. |
| 1919 | College enrollment exceeds 500. |
| 1919 | Ambrose White Vernon establishes at Carleton the nation's first Department of Biography. |
| 1919 | Founding of the Institute of International Education, which assists in identifying and bringing foreign students to Carleton. |
| 1920 | Leighton Hall of Chemistry erected. |
| 1922 | Carleton-in-China program begins; most years until 1949 a junior "rep" is sent to the mission school in Fenchow to teach English for two years. |
| 1922 | Carleton becomes one of the first colleges to adopt an honors program. |
| 1923 | Creation of Allen Memorial Hospital, named for a Carleton student killed in WW1. |
| 1923 | Student automobiles banned on campus. |
| 1923 | New men's dormitory completed. First called South Hall, it is named Davis Hall in 1926. |
| 1924 | Nutting Memorial Drive created to commemorate local trailblazing pioneers. |
| 1927 | Minnie M. Dilley '98 is first woman to serve on the board of trustees. |
| 1927 | Introduction of the proctor system - precursor to current resident assistants - to West Side (male) dormitory life. |
| 1927 | Prof. Harvey Stork pushes for development of a Carleton arboretum. Planting directed by Stork and Superintendent of Grounds D. Blake Stewart begins in the spring. |
| 1927 | Completion of Laird Stadium. |
| 1927 | Completion of Margaret J. Evans Hall. |
| 1928 | Dedication of Severance Hall. |
| 1928 | Creation of the Faculty Club. |
| 1928-1934 | Carleton basketball teams undefeated in conference play. |
| 1930 | Carleton Trustee Frank B. Kellogg awarded the 1929 Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 1930 | Creation of the Carleton Student Association (CSA). F. Atherton Bean '31 is elected its first president. (A precursor student council, the Alma Mater Association, had been founded in 1920.) |
| 1930 | Bell Field named for Trustee Frederic S. Bell. |
| 1932 | Dedication of Nourse Little Theater. |
| 1933 | College purchases Schmidt House for use as a men's dormitory. |
| 1933 | Alumni Fund Association established. |
| 1935 | Carleton granted chapter of Sigma Xi. |
| 1935 | The Voice first appears. (Earlier alumni publications date from 1910, but none since Depression year 1932.) |
| 1936 | Majority of Carleton students no longer from Minnesota. |
| 1937 | Pres. Roosevelt's "court packing" scheme aimed at conservative judicial opponents of the New Deal - including Pierce Butler 1887, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1922. |
| 1937 | Frank B. Kellogg donated $500,000 to support the establishment of a Department of International Relations and to fund scholarships for foreign students to attend Carleton. |
| 1937 | "Carleton-in-China" school flees south as Japanese armies invade Shansi province. |
| 1939 | Schmidt House destroyed by fire. |
| 1939 | Construction of the Women's League Cabin. |
| 1940 | Creation of the Student Social Cooperative (co-op) to provide "a wider social program for a greater number of students at a lower cost." |
| 1941 | A women's riding field acquired; named in 1942 for benefactors Samuel S. and Maude Lair Prentiss. |
