Carleton Summer Science Institute

Sunday, July 10 – Friday, July 29, 2016
and
Sunday, July 17 – Friday, August 5, 2016

Dear CSSI Students and Families,

It is a real pleasure to welcome you to the Carleton Summer Science Institute (CSSI). From the early conceptual stages to the final assembly of faculty, courses, and research experiences, this program has given us the opportunity to think hard about what we do in our disciplines and why. That is, we asked ourselves the question: what are the most important ideas our particular discipline offers society? The courses will introduce you to a few key concepts in our fields. Due to the overwhelming interest in the CSSI program we are excited to offer two sessions again this year. Though the scientific topics will differ between the two sessions, the opportunity for you to receive a rewarding educational experience will be the same.

Our hope is that you will find the science our faculty study to be as exhilarating as we do and become better acquainted with how science works. We strongly believe the best way to learn science is by doing it. To help you along with doing science, you will work with Carleton undergraduate research assistants and a faculty member pursuing a guided research question. Thankfully, we have excellent research facilities and instrumentation that will allow you to ask a wide range of questions and collect your own data. By the end of the program, you will have the opportunity to present your results to your peers, parents, and Carleton community at the Carleton Summer Science Symposium. This will be a great opportunity to recognize your hard work, but also a time of celebration in a collegial atmosphere.

Please join us for the seventh Carleton Summer Science Institute. We have put together an exciting, fun, and hopefully rewarding three weeks of course work and research meant to challenge your assumptions in a rich, supportive intellectual environment.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Wolff, Associate Professor of Biology

Steve Drew, Professor of Chemistry

co-Directors of the Carleton Summer Science Institute

Carleton College has long upheld a tradition of providing equal opportunity to all people. The following nondiscrimination statement is stipulated in the Minnesota State Statutes: As required by state and federal law, Carleton College does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, status with regard to public assistance, age, or disability in providing employment or in its educational programs and activities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Check our FAQ Page for more information on our application and programs.

Important Dates:

December 15, 2015 - Summer Academic Programs Application Opens
February 15, 2016 - 1st Round deadline for general and scholarship applicants and final deadline for international applicants
March 28, 2016 - 2nd Round deadline for general and scholarship applicants (this is the last day to apply for a scholarship for summer 2016)
May 12, 2016 - 3rd Round deadline and all applications close

Frequently Asked Questions

Check our FAQ Page for more information on our application and programs.

« Back to All Summer Academic Programs

Summer Academic Programs

Summer Writing Program

The Summer Writing Program emphasizes a writing process approach, teaching you how to compose academic papers similar to those you will write in college. The program is designed for college-bound students with strong reading and writing abilities.
Summer Science Institute

The Carleton Summer Science Institute will help students learn to think and write like a scientist by doing science. CSSI students, faculty, and Carleton undergraduate research assistants will engage in classroom and hands-on research related to faculty and student interests.
Summer Quantitative Reasoning Institute

The Summer Quantitative Reasoning Institute is designed to give high school sophomores and juniors a substantial college-level experience in how social scientists think about the world, measure important variables of study, prepare research, and present their findings. Students will examine theories in three core disciplines - Economics, International Relations and Psychology.
Summer Computer Science Institute

Students will learn how to systematically approach problems like a computer scientist as they engage in classroom learning, hands-on lab activities, and collaborative guided research directed by Carleton faculty and mentored by undergraduate research assistants. The program will culminate with a Research Symposium where students will demonstrate the results of their collaborative guided research project.
Summer Language and Global Issues Institute

The world is a complicated place—a tangle of languages and cultures and market forces. We’ve devised the Summer Language and Global Issues Institute to show how these entities are intertwined. While giving students an experience of language immersion in French or Spanish, we also provide an introduction to a global topic (this year: immigration) that reveals how language, culture, religion, history, economics and politics converge to influence the flow of populations.
Summer Humanities Institute

The Summer Humanities Institute is a three week program in which students develop and present interdisciplinary, guided research projects in History (including art historical topics) or literature and theater, and acquire tools and techniques of research, interpretation, and presentation essential to achieve the goal of humanistic research: to understand with depth and complexity the nature of human thought, action, and expression.
Carleton Liberal Arts Experience

The CLAE program introduces the strengths of a liberal arts education through an array of courses in science, art, social sciences, and technology.
Carleton Ultimate Summer Program

A week-long program teaching sports psychology, team-building, mental preparedness, and leadership using Ultimate as a vehicle to reinforce these lessons.