How I Chose Carleton College
Fiona shares her college search experience, as well as why she chose to go to Carleton.
Fiona shares her college search experience, as well as why she chose to go to Carleton.
Applying to college is a tedious and sometimes overwhelming process. With so many schools to choose from, it can be hard to pick one to attend. In this post, I’m going to share what the college search process was like for me, and how I decided to end up at Carleton!
Discovering My College Preferences
When I first started looking at schools, I didn’t really have a clear idea of what I wanted. I knew that I wanted to be challenged academically, but that left me with dozens and dozens of schools to choose from. This meant that I had to start thinking about more specific things I wanted out of a school. To help me figure out what I wanted, I toured a bunch of schools near me. I purposefully toured schools that were all very different. I was exposed to big and small schools, public and private, as well as some in the city and some that were rural.
Once I completed my rounds, I decided that I wanted a school that was small, private, and not in the city. These preferences all pointed me towards attending a liberal arts college! At first, I was hesitant to apply to liberal arts schools because I wanted to be a science major. In my mind, big universities were for STEM, and liberal arts schools were for humanities. However, the more I researched these schools, the more I understood that the sciences at liberal arts schools, especially at Carleton, are incredibly strong.
Narrowing Down My Choices
And so my hunt for my ideal small college began. Location wasn’t a huge factor for me, so my options were quite vast. I did a lot of research online looking into what these schools were like in terms of student life. I figured out that I wanted a co-ed school, no Greek life, and a collaborative student body. With all of these criteria, I formed my final list of schools. Lots of them were quite far away from where I lived. My top choices ranged from 1,300 to 3,000 miles away!
Visiting Schools
I wasn’t too sure how I was going to visit all these schools, so I did some more digging online. Eventually, I discovered that there was a way that I could visit each school for a few days: fly-in programs! These programs are offered by lots of liberal arts colleges and are typically open to students who are either first-generation, low-income, or students of color. Once I found out about them, I immediately applied to the ones offered by my top choice schools. In the end, I ended up attending the programs offered by Pomona, Grinnell, and (of course) Carleton.
Taste of Carleton
Carleton’s fly-in program is called Taste of Carleton. A cohort of about 60 other students and I were able to stay at Carleton for three days with student hosts. We got to know Carleton in a more intimate way than a simple campus tour. We sat in on classes, attended campus events, ate in the dining halls, and made friends with Carleton students. By the end of my stay at Carleton, I was sure that I wanted to go here! Not only did it check off all of my boxes on paper, but I really did feel the most connected to the people I met here compared to my other fly-ins. I ended up applying to Carleton early decision. As you can probably tell if you’re reading this, I ended up getting accepted! Now that I’ve been here for two years, I can proudly say that I am still happy with my choice to attend.
Takeaways
Hopefully, my college search process is helpful to those of you who are still searching for colleges and universities to attend. Ultimately, no two cases are the same, but maybe something in this post nudged you closer to your eventual college decision. Even if Carleton isn’t your dream school, I wish the best of luck to anyone applying to college this fall!
Fiona (she/her) is a rising Junior from Stoneham, MA who is majoring in Cognitive Science and minoring in Philosophy. On campus, Fiona works at Carleton’s music venue, The Cave, and is one of many admissions bloggers who is a DJ on KRLX. She is also a defender on the women’s club lacrosse team, and takes yoga classes wherever they fit into her schedule. In her down time, you can find Fiona going for walks in the Arboretum, listening to a podcast, or grabbing a dessert from Cakewalk. Meet the other Bloggers!