Top Drawer
Meet Carleton’s Class of 2009

photographs by Eric Moore

The 545 students—264 men and 281 women—who entered Carleton last fall were selected from a pool of 5,036 applicants. They come from 45 states and 22 countries. Here are a few more facts about this group that assistant dean of admissions Dan Lugo called, statistically speaking, “our best class ever.”

Scholar School

Admitting seven students from any one high school is cause for comment. But when those seven students hail from an inner-city high school that had sent no one to Carleton the previous year, it’s cause for rejoicing. Seven members of the Class of 2009 are graduates of St. Paul’s Harding High School: Krystie Campbell, Thuy Lee, Mailee Moua, Vanessa Ozomaro, Keven Tell, Kaying Vang, and Gao Yang. Two of them are also graduates of Admission Possible, an Americorps–staffed program that helps high-achieving first-generation and low-income students gain entrance to college.

But Admission Possible isn’t the only reason Harding has enjoyed a spike in Carleton admissions, “Harding has a phenomenally dedicated counseling staff,” says Carleton admissions counselor Ben Weeks. “Every one of them does a great job—despite having heavy student loads—giving individual college counseling. They push their good students to look at colleges everywhere.”
And Carleton, too, is intent on recruiting students of color and first-generation students. “We really push to make access to Carleton as fair as possible,” says Weeks. “The result is that Carleton is quite a socioeconomically diverse place.”
It’s not likely that this is a blip and the College has seen the last of Harding graduates. “Once you enroll a few top students from a school, you become recognized,” says Weeks. “We’ll get great applicants from Harding again.”

| origins |


• 7 percent come from outside the United States.
• 71 percent graduated in the top 10th of their high school class.
• 12 percent are the first generation of their families to attend college.
• 24 percent are African American, Asian American, Hispanic/Latino/Chicano, or Native American.
• 92 are National Merit Scholars, 9 are National Hispanic Recognition Scholars, and 1 is a National Achievement Scholar.
• 13 percent speak a language other than English at home.

| adventure |

Some member of the Class of 2009 has:
• Worked on a conservation project with cutthroat fish.
• Spent a summer at the Nafuma Refugee Centre in Rome.
• Lived in a national forest for a month working on restoration projects.
• Traveled to Alaska to assist the Tlingit tribe.
• Served as a crew member on a sailing trip from Venezuela to Texas.
• Studied or performed community service in one of the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Romania, Russia, Spain, Tanzania, Turkey, the United Kingdom (among others).

| Notable Achievements |

Someone in the class has:
• Won first place in a state 4-H dairy judging.
• Played the violin in the All-State, All-Eastern, and National Festival Orchestras.
• Been named an All-State and All-American swimmer and an All-State water polo player.
• Won first place at a regional Intel Science Fair Competition in computer science (twice!).
• Earned a second-degree navy blue belt in Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan (a traditional Korean martial art) and placed second at a recent national tournament.
• Fought hunger by raising $5,000 to buy a “heifer ark” that delivered 50 farm animals to families around the world.
• Worked as a production assistant for NBC Sports.
• Published poetry in Teen Ink magazine and the International Library of Poetry.

| financial aid |


• Carleton met the full financial need of all admitted students.
• 350 members of the class are receiving a total of more than $6 million in Carleton grants.
• The average need-based Carleton grant is $20,903.
• The average need-based financial aid award is $28,523, including grants, scholarships, work-study, and loans.

| research |

In high school, some member of the class:
• Received a best-project award at the National Intel Science Fair for biochemistry research involving the preparation of an herbal solution to enhance the body’s nutrient uptake.
• Participated in an NIH-funded project titled “Anti-tumor Drugs That Bind the DNA Minor Groove.”
• Researched fertility cycles of the olive baboons in Gombe National Park in Tanzania.
• Conducted marine research involving phytoplankton and benthic zooplankton at the Darling Marine Center in Maine.

| music |

Members of the class play bass guitar, cello, clarinet, drums, euphonium, flute, French horn, handbells, harmonica, Highland bagpipe, guitar, kayagum, mandolin, mellophone, oboe, piano, recorder, saxophone, string bass, Tibetan string instruments, trombone, trumpet, viola, and violin.