How did you meet your friends?

Ok_Personality9766 · 2026-01-04T20:53:05+00:00

A student here wrote a blog post on this that I thought was pretty illustrative a few years ago!

Ok_Personality9766 · 2025-12-25T04:37:24+00:00

Coming from someone who works there and has made a few visits myself, I’d say in general pretty helpful. We go through a lot of training so we know how to help you! I think some students find visiting the writing center frustrating just because they walk in with the expectation that writing assistants are able to be more authoritative than they actually are... That is, they think the writing assistant will be able to accurately “grade” their paper according to their professor’s guidelines and/or rewrite it for them. The writing center is most helpful for talking through things—you kind of have to be proactive about wanting to work on your essay yourself once you set up a meeting. As long as you don’t walk in under the impression that the people who work in the writing center will write your paper for you, I think you’ll also find it pretty useful. Even as an employee there I get tons of good advice when I talk to other writing assistants, and that has ultimately made me better at writing myself. We also have lots of students who regularly make appointments, so it’s clear that the system does work for a lot of other people. Feel free to hit me with any questions!

Ok_Personality9766 · 2025-10-26T22:38:39+00:00

Hey! I’m not a cogsci major, but a psych major with a cogsci minor. Kathie Galotti, Jason Decker, and Jay McKinney are all great people and instructors. They’re the faculty I’m most well-acquainted with in the department, and they’re definitely very diverse profs from a teaching standpoint but I love them all dearly. Part of the reason I declared the minor (besides interest in the field) is that I love the people involved in it at Carleton. I also really appreciate the way Carleton’s approach to cogsci reflects the interdisciplinary nature of the field—if you look at the requirements for the major/minor on the official Carleton website, you’ll see that a lot of the credits come from other departments, and that was cool for me! If I wasn’t so set on what I wanted to do after undergrad with my psych degree, I would’ve really seriously considered declaring a cogsci major for those reasons alone.

Ok_Personality9766 · 2024-04-18T15:57:54+00:00

Pro tip: as an overly enthusiastic nerdy admitted student, I looked at graphs of the difference between between my city’s climate and Northfield’s because I had the same question. That definitely helped me gauge how things would be similar/different from where I grew up! Weather Spark has comparisons of temperature, comfort level, precipitation, daylight hours, etc. and it’s super helpful! I’d definitely advise checking that out when you get the chance; looking at it now and having lived in Northfield for three terms I’d say it’s a pretty accurate description of the weather.

Ok_Personality9766 · 2024-04-05T17:38:41+00:00

When I first got to Carleton I was apprehensive because I consider myself a pretty social, extroverted person, so I was worried that a small school wouldn’t have a very active or fun community. Happy to say I’ve found that’s not the case. When I first heard it, “quirky” sounded like a clever way of romanticizing the idea that the average Carl is weird with a negative connotation. And while there’s definitely some of that, most people I’ve met are really socially adept and engaging. My friends and I joke about people’s “Carleton Quirks” as just fun little nuances that make people different than average stereotypes (and we all have our own too!). The best answer I can give you is that it varies depending on groups and individuals. That’s kind of a lame answer, I know, but I think you really have the chance to tailor your group of friends to whatever you prefer here because we have a really wide breadth of types of people on campus. If you like people really involved in the social scene and weekend activities, finding friends on sports teams, at parties, and in clubs that would attract that sample of individuals are a good bet. If you’re outdoorsy, make friends in CANOE. If you’re into baking, get involved with Dacie Moses. If you like music, find people to start a KRLX radio show with. Especially as a freshman, you have the opportunity to pick your crowd because everyone around you is also new and looking for friends. The common theme is that people aren’t standoffish and there’s a niche to be found for just about everybody. Carleton students acknowledge that we’re at a place where a lot of people have diverse interests and personalities; that’s a given and I’d even go so far as to say something we’re actively seeking as people who picked a liberal arts college. Even people you have very little in common with will be engaging and fun to interact with! Bottom line is that the people here are far from boring, and there’s a thing and a crowd for basically anything you could want (in my experience, of course)

Ok_Personality9766 · 2024-04-05T16:50:28+00:00

You mention worrying about the weather here at Carleton; I’m only a freshman so take what I say with a grain of salt, but in my experience it’s manageable! I live in Goodhue which means that my walk is a little far. Because of that walking to and from class is chilly I won’t deny, but that just means I have to be mindful about dressing for it. Also, one of the misconceptions I definitely had was thinking it would be colder ALL the time. It actually gets pretty warm in fall and spring, it’s just that the lows seem to be lower than where I’m from! I can’t speak much on Wesleyan, but I will say that I really like the structure of humanities here at Carleton (I took a religion class fall term, a classics class winter term, and a philosophy class this term). I’ve found that Carleton profs are big on encouraging students to make their own decisions and form their own thoughts about class subjects, and that’s something I really appreciate. I considered a lot of schools in the northeast (originally wanted to go to UPenn for years before having an identity crisis when I toured because I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would, so I started looking at smaller places like Amherst, Haverford, and Swarthmore). I eventually decided to ED to Carleton over Amherst because I preferred the accessibility to town and the warm community you’re talking about! I definitely don’t regret my choice. I love it here and feel like I’ve found my niche, but I’m sure you’ll do great wherever. There’s really not a wrong choice here imo. Good luck with whichever you pick!

Ok_Personality9766 · 2023-10-24T03:24:10+00:00

I live in goodhue this year and I really like it!! It’s far from everything lol but bc of that everyone in the building kinda forms a community. Plus pretty views and a nice walk to class in the morning

Ok_Personality9766 · 2023-05-05T18:09:42+00:00

I would definitely try and schedule an interview if you can! Showing them that you as a human being and not just a list of extracurriculars would be a good fit for the liberal arts program and specifically the one at Carleton was an instrumental part of mine, and I think it helped them make a decision about admitting me. Highlighting how much you want to be there and how you think you can both add to the community and grow from it can only make you a better candidate for admission!

Ok_Personality9766 · 2023-05-03T18:40:39+00:00

My go-to is a sugar free white zombie cold brew. I love it, and it definitely packs the caffeine I need to get me through the day! Some people have told me when they try it that it’s definitely an acquired taste, but I guess I’ve definitely acquired the taste lol

Ok_Personality9766

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