Major Declaration Season!

As an extremely proud Registrar’s Office employee, I get to play a (minor) role in every sophomore’s favorite process: major declaration! Early spring is when all sophomores at Carleton are required to declare their majors. It’s a really important milestone and marks the shift from our liberal arts exploration to a more dedicated study of a singular topic. Declaration is an achievement to genuinely be proud of!

A major side effect of being a Registrar’s Office employee is an all-consuming love for Carleton’s data. As such, I spent much of my time last week perusing the Carleton Student Directory (lovingly known among students as StalkerNet) to see what my classmates chose to declare. Here are some fascinating data points, and some thoughts on what they might say about the Class of 2028.

There Are So Many Biology Majors

There are a whopping 73 Biology majors in the Class of 2028. To students who are considering going to larger schools, this might seem like an extremely small number, but for a small school like Carleton, this is a huge percentage of the class. The Biology department is large, but notoriously challenging. The sheer number of majors speaks to the ability of Carls to take on a huge challenge.

The other thing that I love about Carleton is the diversity within a department. Not all bio people are on the pre-med track! Two of my good friends are bio majors but both aren’t on the premed track. Despite this, they still feel at home in the department. It’s a huge community, but a great community nonetheless.

Carleton Students Are Itching To Do More

One of my other Registrar tricks is knowing about all the rules that Carleton students don’t learn until they need to know them. Our office has sent many emails to people who declared two majors without knowing that they need to submit a petition to do so. Even though it runs against Carleton policy, it’s a demonstration of the eagerness of Carleton students. Even when the explicit period for exploration is over, Carleton students are always down for an additional challenge. Many students also add major(s) to enrich their initial programs of study, another great option for adding to your Carleton experience, especially if you’re studying a language.

Some of my favorite double major combinations that I’ve heard recently are Physics/Philosophy, Theater/English, Environmental Studies/French, Geology/German, Spanish/Economics, and Political Science/Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies.

I Am a Quarter of the Art History Sophomores

I always knew that my department would be small, but it actually ended up being bigger than I realized. There are four new majors in the Art History department! I actually know all three of the other students and they are super kind. Even though the department is small, it’s incredibly mighty.

One of the benefits of being in a small department is a deeper relationship with professors. All Carleton students can form close connections with their profs, it’s one of the advantages of a small school, but I find that in small departments this effect is multiplied. I’ve had fantastic experiences with all of the professors I’ve met, and they’re always available to chat.

Carls are Unpredictably Amazing

The best parts of major declaration is the surprises. It’s especially cool when classmates declare something totally unexpected. It’s was very interesting when a classmate from one of my literary analysis classes majors in something STEM-related. It’s a big reminder that Carls are multi-talented and super smart!

Emma (she/her/hers) is a sophomore prospective Art History major/European Studies minor from Attleboro, Massachusetts. When she’s not in class, you can probably find Emma engrossed in a terribly long conversation in Burton Dining Hall, knitting at a Bald Spot picnic table, or perusing the museum studies stacks on third libe. Beyond blogging, she works for the Registrar’s Office, teaches adult tap dance classes downtown, and loves submitting to student publications like babyteeth and No Fidelity. She loves Carleton for the number of opportunities it offers and the close connections she’s formed with professors, not to mention proximity to coffee from Goodbye Blue Monday and early morning walks through the neighborhoods.