Monday, July 13, 2009

Best Colleges

Carleton College

Work 1 N. College Street Northfield, MN 55057
Work(507) 222-4190
Web site: http://www.carleton.edu
  • 8Rank
  • 90Score
Tier 1
College Category:
Liberal Arts Colleges

Overview : Carleton College

General Information  
Institutional Control: Private
Year founded: 1866
Religious affiliation: N/A
Academic calendar: trimester
Total number of undergraduates: 2,005
Setting rural
Endowment: $761,229,650
Fall Admissions  
Application deadline: 1/15
Application fee: $30
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 29.8 %
Selectivity: most selective
Expenses  
Costs: 2008-2009 Tuition and Fees: $38,046
Mission  
School mission Just a 10-minute walk from downtown historic Northfield, Minnesota, Carleton College offers a liberal arts education of the highest caliber. Founded in 1866, Carleton is consistently ranked among the nation's top undergraduate liberal arts colleges. No one word can characterize Carleton, because it is the people who give the College its distinctive character. Qualities that are repeatedly mentioned when describing Carleton students, faculty, and staff are: individualistic, involved, adventuresome, respectful, friendly, intense, funny, intellectual, cooperative, committed, and innovative. Carleton professors are highly respected, leading scholars in their fields, but they are teachers first. Carleton students come from all 50 states and from 30 other countries. Multicultural students account for 21 percent of Carleton's 1936 students. More than half of all students receive need-based financial aid and about 80 percent hold jobs on campus. Carleton leads 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, including one in 2001. Community service is an integral part of the Carleton experience. More than 600 students are involved in the campus volunteer organization, Acting in the Community Together (ACT). One ACT program is the Volunteer Interpreter Service, which matches college students fluent in foreign languages with non-English speakers from the community. Students help community members translate forms and interpret at meetings. Two-thirds of the student population studies off-campus, at locations around the United States and in countries on every continent except for Antarctica. Each spring break, Carleton students travel around the country to build houses for the Habitat for Humanity program. 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 political activist Winona LaDuke, entrepreneurs Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio's "Fresh Air," William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, 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 the resources of 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. An 80,000 square-foot Recreation Center opened in 2000. Carleton graduates can be found in the forefront of nearly every professional field, and within five years of graduating, 65-70 percent of students go on to top graduate and professional schools across the country.

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