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Summary
Carleton College is a private institution that was founded in 1866. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,018, its setting is rural, and the campus size is 955 acres. It utilizes a trimester-based academic calendar. Carleton College's ranking in the 2013 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, 8. Its tuition and fees are $44,445 (2012-13).
Carleton College is located in the historic river town of Northfield, Minn. The Carleton Knights have 19 varsity athletic teams competing in the NCAA Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Carleton offers more than 170 student organizations, many with creative names, including the Carleton Juggling F.I.S.H., the One Knight Stands cabaret troupe, and the Knightingales a cappella group, to name a few. Intramural sports like quidditch, broomball, dodgeball, and sand volleyball are also popular among students. All freshmen are required to live on campus, and about 90 percent of students choose to remain on campus in one of the residence halls, shared interest houses, or campus townhouses.
Carleton College offers close to 40 undergraduate majors. The college has many unique traditions, including stealing and periodically displaying a plaster bust of the German poet Friedrich Schiller that dates back to the 1950s. A newer tradition is the "Silent Dance Party" during study days prior to finals when students don headphones and dance together in the library. The Goodsell Observatory on Carleton’s campus houses three historic telescopes as well as several modern telescopes available for classes and open houses. Notable alumni include Anthony Downs, author of An Economic Theory of Democracy, and former Supreme Court Justice Pierce Butler.
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Carleton College is a private liberal arts college located in the historic river town of Northfield, MN, 40 miles south of Minneapolis/St. Paul. Best known for its academic excellence and welcoming campus community, Carleton offers 37 majors and 15 concentrations in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Carleton's student body is notoriously difficult to categorize, but one word to describe it might be curious. Carls are an intellectually insatiable group that approaches learning with enthusiasm, energy, and a uniquely Carleton brand of playfulness. Broad-ranging interests are common, and friendships seem to cross all traditional boundaries. As students and alumni will tell you, there's just something different about Carleton. Maybe it's the size (about 2,000 students). Or maybe it's the round-the-clock proximity of so many creative minds (most students live and socialize on campus). Whatever the reason, Carleton is a place where students are likelier to cooperate than compete. The College supports more than 100 student organizations, features numerous a capella vocal groups, comedy troupes, dance groups and drama groups. The College sponsors 20 varsity sports, with a vast club and intramural sports scene that sees nearly 90 percent of the student body partake with a wide spectrum of ability level. Carleton's faculty members are highly respected scholars, researchers, and practitioners in their fields. But above all, their first priority is teaching. A student-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 ensures that Carleton students have plenty of opportunity for interaction with their professors. Carleton students come from 49 states and 41 other countries. Multicultural students account for 22 percent of Carleton's 2,000 students. More than half of all students receive need-based financial aid and about 80 percent hold jobs on campus. Carleton ranks second among all undergraduate colleges in the number of its students awarded prestigious National Science Foundation Fellowships for graduate study. The College enrolls more National Merit Scholars than any other small liberal arts college in the country, and has had 18 Rhodes Scholars. The Center for Community and Civic Engagement encourages students to combine traditional volunteer service with scholarly engagement in the community. Opportunities abound for internships, externships, summer research with faculty, and career exploration with alumni. More than 70 percent of the student population participates in off-campus studies. Carleton brings nationally and internationally distinguished guests to campus as visiting faculty or for weekly convocations, which are free and open to the public. Guests have included astronaut Sally Ride, political activist Winona LaDuke, entrepreneurs Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and Carleton alumnus Barrie Osborne, Oscar award winning producer of "The Lord of the Rings." Carleton features an 880-acre Cowling Arboretum (also called "the Arb") that provides a network of walking, running, and cross-country skiing trails adjacent to the Cannon River and east of the campus. The Arb was named among the top 10 places to run in the country by Runner's World magazine. The College also has one of the largest undergraduate libraries in the United States, as well as a science complex that consists of a Center for Mathematics and Computing, and buildings for physics and psychology, biology, and chemistry and geology. Opened in 2011, the Weitz Center for Creativity is a working lab for creativity where the arts intersect with all disciplines. An 80,000 square-foot Recreation Center opened in 2000, giving Carls a state-of-the-art athletics and recreation facility. Carleton graduates can be found in the forefront of nearly every professional field, and within ten years of graduating, 75-80 percent of alumni go on to top graduate and professional schools across the country. |
General Information
| School type | private, coed college |
| Year founded | 1866 |
| Religious affiliation | N/A |
| Academic calendar | trimester |
| Setting | rural |
| 2011 Endowment | $653,465,246 |
Applying
When applying to Carleton College, it's important to note the application deadline is January 15, and the early decision deadline is November 15. Scores for either the ACT or SAT test are due February 1. The application fee at Carleton College is $30. It is most selective, with an acceptance rate of 31.0 percent.
For more information about the tests, essays, interviews, and admissions process, visit the Applying to College knowledge center.
| Selectivity | most selective |
| Fall 2011 acceptance rate | 31.0% |
| Application deadline | January 15 |
| SAT/ACT scores must be received by | February 1 |
Academic Life
The student-faculty ratio at Carleton College is 9:1, and the school has 64.8 percent of its classes with fewer than 20 students. The most popular majors at Carleton College include: Social Sciences; Physical Sciences; Visual and Performing Arts; Biological and Biomedical Sciences; and Mathematics and Statistics. The average freshman retention rate, an indicator of student satisfaction, is 96.5 percent.
Student Life
Carleton College has a total undergraduate enrollment of 2,018, with a gender distribution of 47.8 percent male students and 52.2 percent female students. At this school, 94.0 percent of the students live in college-owned, -operated, or -affiliated housing and 6.0 percent of students live off campus. Carleton College is part of the NCAA III athletic conference.
See what students are saying about life at Carleton College.
| Total enrollment | 2,018 |
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| Collegiate athletic association | NCAA III |
Campus Info & Services
Carleton College offers a number of student services including nonremedial tutoring, women's center, placement service, health service, and health insurance. Carleton College also offers campus safety and security services like 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transport/escort service, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways/sidewalks, student patrols, and controlled dormitory access (key, security card, etc). Of the students at Carleton College, 15 percent have cars on campus. Alcohol is permitted for students of legal age at Carleton College.
| Students who have cars on campus | 15% |
| Health insurance offered | Yes |
| Students required to own/lease a computer | No |
More About Campus Info & Services
Paying for School
At Carleton College, 56.0 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid and the average need-based scholarship or grant award is $30,260.
Paying for college doesn't have to be difficult or devastating. Go to the Paying for College knowledge center to get advice on raising cash and reducing costs.
| Tuition and fees | $44,445 (2012-13) |
| Room and board | $11,553 (2012-13) |
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* Overview details based on 2011 data
