Carleton College
Hallmarks and Quirks
Things I'm Good At:
- Ultimate Frisbee. Haven't heard of it? Don't worry, you will. It's kind of a passion around here—a little like football, but played with a Frisbee. Pick-up games are easy to learn and most dorm floors have an IM team. In intercollegiate competitions, I'm better than most schools ten times my size.
- A well-rounded education. My students take their classes seriously here, and I want everyone to try at least a few classes in every discipline, just to get a sense of what you like. The selection of classes here is like a big sampler platter, except instead of shrimp and crackers, you get tasty, tasty knowledge.
- A cappella. You like singing groups? I got 'em—most notably the Singing Knights and the Knightingales, but there's always a few more around. All of them are ready to throw down at any time with a gorgeous harmonic rendition of Cole Porter or Miley Cyrus—you know, depending on the day.
- Random bouts of creativity. Got your own play you want to put on? How about starting a one-man band? A sculpture so incredible than none can see it lest they be driven mad? Buddy, I'm the place.
My Top 5 Must-Haves:
- Winter clothes. Seriously. No joke. There are days when you can actually feel the gunk freezing in your nose.
- A Frisbee. Even if you don't know how to throw it, you'll learn. Quickly.
- Bookshelves. Hit the Ikea and find something cheap and durable. Academics are tough and those long winters require lots of indoor activities to keep you occupied.
- A quirky spirit. We revel in the strange and unusual here…even the strange and unusual that doesn't advertise its strangeness. A healthy imagination and a willingness to apply it will do just fine.
- A bus pass. Students don't usually have cars on campus, but there's a bus service running into the Twin Cities in case you need a little big-city culture (or to watch the Vikings lose again).
Why You Might Have Heard of Me:
- Best Undergraduate Teaching. While the U.S. News & World Report constantly lists us in the Top Ten Liberal Arts Colleges in the country, we're especially proud of our teachers. With small class sizes, you can bet they're going to know you by your first name…and whether you flunked that midterm or not.
- Paul Wellstone. The late U.S. Senator was still a professor here when he launched a long-shot campaign in the fall of 1990. To everyone's surprise, he won…and remained a Senator until his death in 2002. We were all kind of stunned when he won. Then again, we do kind of fit the "lovable misfit" category.
- R2D2. In June, 2010, we made national news when one enterprising group of students made the observatory look like everyone's favorite Astromech. They even got the head to turn. Top that, MIT.
On a regular Saturday night, you can find me...
As we may have mentioned, it gets really cold around here, which means that the vast majority of social activities are, um, indoors. The good news is that dorm life is rocking, with parties and activities planned most every Saturday night.
Like things a little quieter, though? Check out The Concert Hall, the Arena Theater, or the Little Theater. We're a little theater-happy out here, and live performances are a pretty big deal. Movie buffs can check out showings of recent releases and the older classics at the Weitz Cinema every Saturday night—without needing to drive anywhere.
Favorite Hangouts:
- The Cave. If you feel like a beer and some music, you can slip down to the campus bar which hosts student musicians and local bands from the Twin Cities area. It's conveniently placed so you can stagger back to your dorm room in the wee hours of the morning.
- Sayles-Hill. The campus center holds all of the student's mailboxes, as well as the bookstore, a bevvy of pool tables, a stocked cafeteria, and even a few quiet, little meeting rooms for you to plot your mayhem in secret.
- Grundy's, a.k.a. The Reub, a.k.a. J. Grundy's Reub n' Stein. Northfield's beloved bar 'n grill is here for all your fried-stuff-on-a-stick needs…along with some fermented beverages to wash it down.
Quirks:
- A bust of German philosopher Friedrich Schiller exists somewhere on campus, changing hands and existing only in secrecy for months on end. The bust makes surprise appearances at sporting events, graduations, and any gathering of squares in need of a serious freaking out. (You might have seen it on an episode of The Colbert Report, orchestrated by an alum who writes for the show.)
- The Primal Scream. Hey, school can be tough, and we know the pressure's on. That's why at 10:00PM the night before finals each term, every student opens his or her window and sounds a barbaric yawp over the rooftops.
- The NCAA's only metric football game. In 1977, our traditional football game against St. Olaf was conducted on a field measured in meters instead of yards. They crushed us like grapes, 43-0, but the event lives on as part of our nation's aborted effort to use measurements that make sense.
Famous Alumni:
- Peter Tork, bassist for The Monkees—though, technically, he was a dropout.
- Pierce Butler, Supreme Court Justice.
- Walter Alvarez, geologist who theorized that an asteroid killed the dinosaurs.
- Garrick Utley, former news correspondent and Meet the Press mucky-muck.
- Barrie Osborne, big-shot Hollywood producer who gave us the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
- Wendy West, TV writer for Dexter, Law & Order, and The Blacklist.
- Peter Gwinn, TV writer for The Colbert Report.