The Academic Course Catalog contains information about the courses that have been offered at Carleton for the last four years. The catalog also includes information regarding academic requirements for graduation, placement and transfer credits, off-campus studies, admissions, fees and financial aid along with a search engine that allows you to search for courses being offered for the current academic term. You can also download a pdf version of the catalog if you want to print a particular section of the catalog.


Image of the front page of the academic catalog indicating headings to click for more information, where to click to download a pdf copy and the catalog search engine.

As you scroll down the initial catalog page you will also see a listing of all of the academic departments and programs.


Image of the department and program listings in the academic catalog.

Selecting a department or program will give you specific information regarding the department, majors and minors, major and minor requirements and information about courses offered by the department.


Image of the Biology department academic catalog page indicating the accordions to open for more information.

You can search the catalog for courses using several different methods including

  • Basic Searching 
  • Searching by Liberal Arts Requirements
  • Searching by Major/Minor Requirements
  • Navigating Your Search Results

Basic Searching


Image of the academic catalog search engine highlighting fields for filtering the results and indicating the Find Courses button and Clear Search Options link to start the search over.

  1. From the current course catalog main page, you can search the course catalog by entering information into the following fields:
    • Subject: Area of study
    • Term: Defaults to current year. if you are looking for a course for a specific term, select the term from the list
    • Search Titles & Descriptions: Enter a short phrase to search course titles and descriptions
    • Credits: Number of credits the course has
    • Class Days: The days that the course meets
    • Time of Day: The time of day that the course meets
    • Faculty: The instructor for the course

  1. You can enter as much or as little information into the search criteria window as you would like. As you enter more search criteria the results will continue to be narrowed down. 
  2. Once you have all of your search criteria entered, click the Find Courses button. A list of courses matching your search criteria will be displayed.
  3. If your search results need to be narrowed further, click the Modify Your Search button at the top of your results page and select other options and click the Find Courses button.
  4. If you want to start your search over, click the Clear Search Option link.
  5. If you find a course that you would like to register for, write down the course subject, number and section number. 

Note: You cannot register for a course directly from the course catalog. You must register for courses through Workday. See our Workday guide on Registering for a Course or our Workday guide on Registering from a Saved Schedule. You must have a Workday account in order to see these guides.


Searching By Liberal Arts Requirements

To achieve a solid liberal arts education you will be exposed to a wide range of course subjects and methods of study. You will be required to complete coursework that meets several liberal arts requirements.


Note: For more information regarding liberal arts requirements and liberal arts requirements tags see Current Academic Catalog – Academic Requirements or our Workday guide Overview of Exploring the Curriculum. (You must have a Workday account to view this article.)


You can review your Academic Progress report within Workday to determine which liberal arts requirements you still need to satisfy in order to graduate. Once you know which liberal arts requirement(s) you would like to try and satisfy, you can search the course catalog by the specific liberal arts requirement. 


Note: For more information on viewing your academic progress, see our Workday guide View Academic Progress (You must have a Workday account to see this article).


Image of the academic catalog search engine point out where to find the liberal arts requirements that you can search for courses by.

  1. From the current course catalog main page, you can search the course catalog by selecting the Liberal Arts Requirement that you would like courses to satisfy. 

Note: You can select multiple requirements to find courses that meet more than one requirement. You may find one course that will satisfy multiple requirements.


  1. Select any of the other search criteria to narrow your search to further.
  1. Click Find Courses.
  1. If you find a course that you would like to register for, write down the course subject, number and section number. 

Note: You cannot register for a course directly from the course catalog. You must register for courses through Workday. See our Workday guide on Registering for a Course or our Workday guide on Registering from a Saved Schedule. (You must have a Workday account to see these guides.)


Searching by Major/Minor Requirements

Students will have an opportunity to explore a wide variety of courses, and then will be asked to choose one field to study more in depth or declare a major beginning in their sixth term at Carleton. Students can also declare a minor field of study. Each major/minor carries additional requirements that must be met in order to graduate. 

You cannot search the course catalog by major requirement directly. It is a two step process to find courses that will meet a major requirement, including,

  • Finding Your Major/Minor Requirements
  • Searching by a Major/Minor Requirement from a Course

Finding Your Major/Minor Requirements


  1. From the current course catalog main page, scroll down to the list of departments or programs.
  2. Select your major department or program from the list.
  3. Select the Requirements for the [Major or Minor] accordion.

Image of the Classics department page in the academic catalog indicating where to find the major and minor requirements.

  1. Scroll through the requirements. Courses are listed underneath each requirement.

Image of the Classics major requirements with the Historical Analysis major requirement highlighted.

  1. Click on a course title link for more information about the course.

Searching By a Major/Minor Requirement from a Course


From the major requirements page you can select a course that meets a certain major requirement and find other courses that meet that same requirement.

  1. Select a course that meets a requirement you are interested in satisfying for your major. A course information window opens with more course details including requirement information.

Image of the Course Information window for CLAS 227 Athens, Sparta, and Persia.

  1. Select the major requirement tag that you are interested in seeing other courses that satisfy that requirement.

Image of CLAS 227 Athens, Sparta, and Persia course information window with the major requirement tag CLAS Civilization Historical Analysis tag highlighted.
  1. A list of courses will be generated that also satisfy the requirement that you selected.

Navigating Your Search Results

After you enter your search criteria and click the Find Courses button, a list of courses matching your search criteria is displayed.


Image of course search results pointing out search criteria, related courses, modify your search button and course sections offered.

Key Information

  • Underneath the Search Results title, there is a list of search criteria for the displayed results.
  • If applicable, there is a link to Related Courses results. These are courses that may satisfy other requirements similar to your search criteria.
  • A list of courses and course sections are displayed that meet your search criteria. 
  • In the course listing the course description, when it is offered, Liberal Arts Requirements, prerequisites, and major or minor Tags (requirements) are displayed.
  • If a course is offered during the academic term selected, all course sections will appear in a gray boxes. The gray boxes include when the section is offered, the faculty instructor, class capacity, where and when the course section meets.

  • If you are interested in registering for a course section listed write down the course subject, number and section number.

Note: You cannot register for a course directly from the course catalog. You must register for courses through Workday. See our Workday guide on Registering for a Course or our Workday guide on Registering from a Saved Schedule. (You must have a Workday account to see these guides.)