Northfield,MN: It was the summer after my junior year, and I had no plans! My sister hadspent her pre-senior summer at Brown University and loved it, so I took her leadand applied to the Carleton Summer Writing Program. After I signed up, I almostbacked out of it. What soon-to-be senior wants to spend three weeks inNorthfield, Minnesota, the town of "colleges, cows and contentment" (Ialmost fainted when I saw this sign as we entered Northfield)? I stuck with mydecision, however, and a month later found myself 23 hours from home. The nextthree weeks would be the best of my life.

I was required to write threecollege-level papers, for which we were given computer access. I spent a gooddeal of time in the library trying not to fall asleep on the big green couches.(I highly recommend you try these out if you are in the library.) The library hasover a half-million volumes and a computer lab where you can access the Internetor the University of Minnesota library's 4,000,000 volumes.

Carletonoffers a number of majors and concentrations. Biology is one of the most popular,as are psychology, English, math and history.

The campus is beautiful. The"Bald Spot" is popular for afternoon Frisbee games, and during thewinter becomes an ice-skating/broom hockey rink. The campus also has a 400-acrearboretum and two small lakes on its 950 acres - plenty of room for the 1,800students.

Most, if not all, students live on campus. Freshmen share dormswith juniors and seniors. My room was a double with a connecting bath to anotherdouble. We all had plenty of space. There are also new student townhomes(substance-free) as well as other campus-owned houses.

The town ofNorthfield turned out to have Midwest charm and some surprisingly cool places,like a vintage clothing store. The twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul areonly 45 minutes away, as is the famous Mall of America.

On campus, theSayles-Hill Campus Center not only has a huge TV and pool tables, but also acoffee shop/convenience store and the Carleton Bookstore. The newly builtrecreation center has tennis courts, an indoor track, weight room, dance studioand classes going on all the time.

The food rocks; I gained ten pounds inmy three short weeks at Carleton. There are just too many options to passup!

Carleton is ranked in the top ten liberal arts schools by U.S. Newsand World Report. It is a unique, top-quality school in the friendly Midwest.Give it a try


Reviewed in 2002