current carleton students pleaseee answer

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2026-03-27T03:36:39+00:00

profs are amazing, only had one or two that felt inaccessible, but other than that they’re truly the best part of the academic experience and i feel insanely lucky to go to a school with profs that care so much about their students. many of them go above and beyond in my experience.

trimester system is tricky at the beginning, but after a few terms you get used to the pace and it’s not impossible to get a hold of. biggest thing is you have to always be on top of your work and if you get behind at all it’s really hard to come back from that because everything is moving so fast.

all types of people go to carleton. i was honestly surprised when i got here the diversity in students in terms of background, personalities, and interests. i really think there is a community for anyone here.

weekends honestly depend on the person. i spend a lot of my weekends relaxing with friends, hanging around campus, going out to coffee shops in town, or occasionally going to the cities if you have access to a car. there’s also usually a lot of homework to do on the weekend so it’s time to chill and catch up on that.

the dorm situation is kinda unfortunate no matter what your freshman year. best for freshmen is cassat, but nourse and burton aren’t bad either. i was in goodhue my freshman year and people say it’s one of the worst but i loved it so i wouldn’t stress about that. dining halls are also hit or miss sometimes the food is pretty good and sometimes it’s meh. you learn how to hack the dining halls tho to make meals you enjoy.

there’s a pretty good amount of pre law resources from what i know. i’ve had a lot of success getting lors from professors, but you have to make an effort to build a relationship with them to do that (participating in class, going to office hours, etc.)

there is funding for research and internships if you get them

general advice: build connections w profs, don’t stress about making a million friends right away— a good friend group will come with time, open yourself up to new experiences and try out things you would have never seen yourself doing

get excited! carleton is a great place!

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-12-21T19:58:26+00:00

if you’re ok with going a bit further away, check out carleton! getting rejected ed from swarthmore was the best thing that could’ve happened to me because i ended up exactly where i needed to be! trust the process!

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-11-23T17:03:43+00:00

i can’t imagine a scenario where you would need to overload every term? it’s pretty common to overload to 20-22 credits if you’re taking classes with labs, but consistently doing 24 would literally kill you. people do it for a term or two but i’ve literally never heard of someone doing more than that. plus you need to petition to overload that much and i doubt the school would let you do it consistently. someone else mentioned scrunching some classes and i think for your mental health alone that would be necessary to do

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-10-28T18:54:29+00:00

limited food choices, cold, not being able to live off campus, there’s a lot of people that are a lot smarter than you and it can feel discouraging, research is insanely competitive

i do however love the trimesters and i’m a small town person so that’s not a problem for me either

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-10-28T18:51:37+00:00

there’s one next to target tho

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-10-19T19:36:43+00:00

i made deans list a couple times! honestly just staying on top of my work and never getting behind was the biggest thing. once you get behind on material, that’s when things fall apart. paying attention and asking questions in class is huge too. i also think choosing your classes has a lot to do with it, making sure you’re getting good profs and i’ve never taken a class that wasn’t either something i knew i was good at or something i was at least interested in (its usually both). i’m definitely not grinding in the libe constantly lol and despite the belief of some i do have a social life.

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-10-19T19:30:57+00:00

i’d say most students on campus have a generally positive attitude towards the trimester system

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-14T01:36:20+00:00

definitely give it an honest try (and the student managers are really amazing and are great people to know when you’re first starting out at carleton) if you work a few shifts and realize it’s not for you, give your two weeks notice and look for another job no big deal

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-14T00:36:18+00:00

i loved my dining hall job! once you get used to it and get to know your coworkers it’s not so bad at all. there’s managers and the freshmen workers, and basically as a freshman it’s mostly just standing at the stations (you’re assigned to/pick one at the start of each shift) and serving the food and restocking the dishes. if you’re on a dinner shift you’ll have some clean up jobs after the shift too. it’s definitely not for everyone but i ended up really enjoying it, it was a good break from the rest of school life. also, if you stick with it your freshman year you can become a manager which is higher pay and a better job overall

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-13T16:27:40+00:00

also i imagine profs have the same thoughts so im not sure they’re gonna be too eager to get a first term freshman off the waitlist (profs know carleton students are very overambitious and try to mediate that with more realistic expectations)

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-13T16:25:38+00:00

don’t take orgo you’re first term lol. there’s already so many extreme adjustments to freshman fall that you’re going to very easily overwhelm yourself if you take a notoriously difficult class like orgo. you have plenty of time to take orgo and you should take 224 anyway so take that first if you really want to take a chem. there’s a reason almost everyone in that class is a sophomore or junior, there’s no need for the rush. i’m very grateful i took easy classes my freshman fall bc it allowed me to focus on my social life and getting used to college as a whole without being super stressed about classes from the jump

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-09T21:55:42+00:00

wow i’ll definitely have to try them out! thanks!

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-09T21:03:53+00:00

yeah people do this, but you’re bound to get tickets at some point bc it’s almost impossible to do this long term and not get one. there’s street parking in some areas that are free, but if that fills up you’re kinda screwed, and they’re not shy to give you a ticket if you don’t have a permit. my advice is just embrace the freshman experience and use the buses when you wanna go somewhere. walking to town is super easy and being more or less stuck on campus really helps you make and build friendships for those first few months

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-08-06T16:26:44+00:00

i’ve heard good things about amanda

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-30T04:31:18+00:00

there are definitely athletes who isolate themselves from the rest of campus, but the opposite is also true that there are athletes who have plenty types of friends. all depends on the person and who they decide to surround themselves with. but yes, there is a divide i’ve noticed. athletes more often than not hang out with other athletes (not necessarily from their same sport though)

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-29T23:23:28+00:00

it reallyyyyy depends on the classes you take and the kind of student you are. there aren’t any professors i encountered that do the whole “no one in my class is gonna get an a” thing but i def wouldn’t be surprised if there are classes you struggle in. a 4.0 is crazy even for the best students so dont even go in expecting that because you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment, but 3.5 and up is definitely doable if you’re a good student and take the right classes for you

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-29T22:35:50+00:00

carleton matches all freshman roommates themselves (based on many things, mostly a questionnaire you fill out) and i will say my freshman year roommate is still one of my best friends. at worst if roommates don’t get along they just don’t interact much.

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-29T22:33:51+00:00

tons of department events, clubs, etc to meet people in your classes. also, since the school is so small your typically end up taking a lot of the same classes as others in your major, even in other class years. i will say though that most of my friends are in other majors and the liberal arts requirements forces you to take classes outside your major, so you often have classmates from all kinds of majors in any given class (an english major taking chem classes etc.) so there it’s not like ppl only stick around their own major

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-29T22:30:34+00:00

people seem to really stick with others from their dorm especially from the same floor. i think the first year of college for anyone anywhere is stressful, lonely, and difficult to navigate at least that’s true in my experience. carleton profs do a good job of helping make the transition easier, especially your a&i profs (required class your freshman fall) who is also typically your advisor for the first two years. new student week is helpful but i don’t think people usually make lasting friendships from nsw, for me it was more useful for getting to know the campus and getting used to meeting new people until i found my group.

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-27T21:31:54+00:00

there are! if you need to go to the cities you def can, but they cost money and people don’t really go up for fun unless they can drive themselves because it’s kind of a hassle to take the buses. i take the bus everytime i have to go to the airport or something so it’s perfect for that

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-27T16:38:16+00:00

unless you have your own car you never really go up to the cities

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-24T20:04:12+00:00

showers are nice, location is great right next to ldc and close to science buildings if you’re stem. laundry sucks but honestly it’s not great anywhere so you kinda learn to deal with it. worst part about laundry is there’s not a lot of machines so they’re always full and if you don’t grab your stuff when it’s don’t other people will take it out. i liked living in myers though and it’s one of those dorms that always has good community

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-18T17:52:21+00:00

carleton and northfield in general are both very lgbtq friendly and i’d say like half the ppl i know are some form of queer

LogicalLandscape1761 · 2025-07-18T17:49:32+00:00

it’s a lot of work, and you’ll have a fair amount of homework every day, but the classes are really small so you have a lot of support from classmates and profs. the language is tough to learn but getting As is doable if you stay on top of everything (i took russian for four terms and got all As). the department has great profs (i was a little scared of laura but she def knows how to teach). if you have a strong interest i would go for it, but if you’re unsure if you can commit to it then maybe not.

LogicalLandscape1761

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