Carleton’s Summer Liberal Arts Institute offers new one-week courses to high school students

“Few things are more fun than diving deep into fascinating topics, geeking out with like-minded peers, and learning from Carleton faculty who are rooting for you every step of the way.”

That is one of many reasons listed by Margi Youmans ’06, director of Carleton’s Summer Liberal Arts Institute (SLAI), for why high school students should apply to the program. Now, after running SLAI for four years, she has guided the program through an expansion to offer even more courses and opportunities for students to take advantage of.

Typically, SLAI offers five to six different courses over the summer, lasting three weeks and granting each student with six Carleton credits. This year’s courses include a deep dive into the Renaissance; an exploration of movements, borders, and migration; and Thinking About Feelings, which examines emotions from neuroscience, cultural studies, and theatre perspectives.

For Summer 2026, SLAI is offering an additional six courses for no college credit that last only one week. They will be held concurrently with the three-week courses, with the option to take two one-week courses back-to-back. These include courses on sports analytics, examining historical resistance through stitching (students will learn embroidery!), gender studies from a global perspective, the anthropology of food, film scores, and what it means to ethically love other people’s music.

These new one-week offerings are aimed not only at younger students just beginning to explore their college options, but also those who need more flexibility.

“We’re finding that students, for a variety of reasons, really want options,” Youmans explained. “If they work, for example, they can’t take three weeks off from a summer job. If they travel, if they’re on sports teams — just all the kinds of things that are pulling at their attention in the summer. It’s much easier to leave for five days than it is for three weeks, so we [wanted to add] that option for families.”

Another reason, and pitch, for the expanded offerings is affordability. While financial aid options are available, the sticker price for the three-week courses is $5,300. The new one-week courses, however, are $1,500. Both of these prices, though, still sit well below the average cost of other pre-college programs across the country.

Youmans also stressed that the one-week courses are a way to get more students to give Carleton a chance, and later give themselves more affordable college options.

“Our for-credit programs are very selective. Our one-week programs were built with a different intention: they’re for curious students who are up for having their interest piqued in a different environment than they might have otherwise considered,” she said. “We’re not asking for as much in the application. We’re trying to expand the type of person that gives us a chance for a week. Many students are surprised to discover the depth of Carleton’s financial resources. It allows Carleton to consistently deliver tremendous learning experiences — even during the summer! — and meet the full demonstrated need of every admitted student, 100 percent. Many students don’t necessarily know that’s the case, but if we can get them to apply, they might be surprised at how well Carleton fits what they need.”

The experience itself is another selling point, Youmans explained.

“We do a very good job of reflecting the Carleton experience, and making sure our student groups are diverse,” Youmans said. “I think it’s a really incredible environment to meet like-minded intellectual people. That’s what we hear from students. There is truly a level of diversity in family income, race, ethnicity, citizenship — and yet the thing that everybody has in common is their interest in a unique topic. Who is in the room matters, because we’re learning from and with one another; we’re not just learning from the professor.”

Allie Lyman, assistant director of SLAI, sees these programs as windows into the future that high school students can use to see their college potential.

“Students are often surprised by how much individual support they receive from both faculty and student mentors,” she said. “They get a real sense of what it’s like to do college-level work — having someone guide their research, challenge their ideas, and help them grow not just academically, but as thinkers and young people on their way to impacting the world.”

To give students specificity on what to expect, Claire Kelling, assistant professor of statistics, expounded on her own one-week summer course, Sports Analytics: How Data Informs Preparation and Play. 

“Our sports analytics course is meant to engage students that are interested in sports but want to understand it at a deeper level,” Kelling said. “Lots of people are really passionate about their teams but don’t necessarily know a lot about the really interesting roles statistics play.”

One primary focus of Kelling’s isn’t just interesting statistics, but also being able to recognize poor use of statistics.

“Sometimes, when you listen to broadcasters talk about sport statistics, you’ll hear meaningless statistics,” she said. “I think one reason to take this class is to think a little bit about the broader picture — think about what makes a meaningful or actionable statistic in this context. Statistics about sports don’t have to be superficial — they play a crucial role in so many parts of the game and can be really informative.”

Kelling added that a lot of generally useful statistics and data skills will be taught as well, potentially including data processing and interactive data visualization. That’s all applicable to sports data, she says, but also to many different fields beyond sports.

More than anything, Kelling wants her students to walk away with the ability to pursue their own curiosity and be critical thinkers about the world around them.

“If [a student] wants to look up data about something they’re interested in,” Kelling said, “whether that be data about sports or some other topic, they could then start visualizing the data and interpreting their preliminary results. There’s so much value in being able to independently explore data about your own interests, whatever those interests might be.”

So, what kind of high school student should apply to SLAI programs?

“Any high-achieving, motivated high school student,” Youmans answered, “who is interested in diving deep into a topic that many of them can’t find in their own high schools — or a passion they’ve already identified — and getting a taste of a liberal arts college environment. We’re looking for academically curious students with strong transcripts, but mostly, we hope to see who’s jazzed about being here and who’s done their research about the program they want to go to.”

Now, as any good Carl brags about, Carleton faculty have been ranked #1 in the nation for the last 15 years straight. So how is that signature educational quality kept up over a one-week course?

“We’re careful to hire really good faculty who know how to structure an intense period of time for younger students,” Youmans said. “We make sure faculty are thoughtful about how they build the arc of that five days with labs or field trips or guest speakers. They provide a very deep dive into a single topic.”

Even if SLAI students find that Carleton isn’t an undergraduate match for them, the program still ends up being worthwhile. 

“Sometimes, the biggest gift is having an experience that refines what you think you know about your interests and preferences,” Youmans said. “Students are also surprised by the high level of individual instruction and support they get from our mentors and instructors. We love it when they leave wanting to apply as an undergrad.”

SLAI students were three times more likely to get into Carleton than non-SLAI applicants from the Class of 2029 — but more important than giving a high school student an edge, SLAI helps them learn and grow into who they will eventually become in and after college.

“They can immediately see their growth in just three weeks,” Lyman said. “These are students who have heard, ‘You have so much potential!’ It’s really fun to see them reflect on how much confidence they’ve gained as they gather tangible evidence of mastering concepts and skills.”

Learn more and apply for SLAI online once applications open December 15, 2025.