Congratulations to the Class of 2023!

It’s now past the deadline for committing to college, so I would like to extend a warm welcome to the Carleton Class of 2023! This may very well have been one of the biggest decisions you have made thus far in your lives, and I promise that you won’t be let down: Carleton is a magical place and I’m sure all of you will instantly feel at home on campus.

I’m not sure if any of you held the same sentiments as me, but when I was a high school senior, the last few weeks leading up to the declaration deadline on May 1st were quite stressful. I hope you all had a more straightforward selection process than me; I was very unsure of where I wanted to go and visited multiple schools during the month of April, and I didn’t commit to Carleton until the last couple of days before the deadline.

So while I felt much more relaxed after the deadline, my feelings of stress about which school to choose were quickly replaced with feelings of nervousness. College suddenly felt like it was starting so soon, and I didn’t know what to expect. How much harder were classes going to be in college? How would I cope with leaving my hometown where my friends and family were, and restarting in an unfamiliar environment in rural Minnesota?

If any of you share the same or similar feelings as I did, my advice to you is not only to relax, but to really cherish your last 3-4 months before you leave for Northfield. You’ve clearly worked hard throughout high school to get to where you are now, and while you (hopefully!) are excited for college, you have a few months before work starts again, without needing to worry about looming college applications and whatnot. So now is the time to celebrate all you’ve done to get where you are and appreciate invaluable time with your family and friends before you move on to a new beginning.

I also must mention that my transition to college was much easier than I ever could have imagined. Everyone is extremely friendly here — students, professors, advisors, administrative staff, and dining hall workers, just to name a few — and you will immediately feel at home. So I hope you can look at the near future as not a time of uncertainty, but purely as a time of invaluable opportunity and excitement.

Congratulations once again, and see you in the fall!

Alvin is a west coast kid at heart (coming from San Jose, California), but is excited to start many adventures here in Minnesota. He plays for the soccer team here at Carleton and loves exercise. If he’s not on the soccer field, in the gym, or out on a bike ride during his free time, he can be found in one of the lounges playing Exploding Kittens, or in the music building playing piano. He is a potential economics major with an interest in computer science and mathematics. Meet the other bloggers!