Opinions on Carleton College (Minneapolis, Lakeville: credit, house, transfer)

[AGuyFromCleveland18]

I know it has a good reputation, but is it a nice school? Is it an interesting place, and friendly as well? How is Northfield, MN. If you had a choice would you rather go to St. Olaf or Carleton?

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by AGuyFromCleveland18

I know it has a good reputation, but is it a nice school? Is it an interesting place, and friendly as well? How is Northfield, MN. If you had a choice would you rather go to St. Olaf or Carleton?

What do you mean by "nice"?

I live in Northfield -- both schools are nice places, at least from my non-student (mostly-see below) vantage point. They also fit nicely into the community and make an effort to be a part of it. When I was in high school I spent a lot of time hanging out at Carleton, using the library (which is open to the community and far more extensive than the local library, as nice as that is) and bumming around the student center. The campus is lovely, and the Cowling Arboretum (the "Arb") is a wonderful asset to the town, full of hiking and biking trails. I took a single psychology course at St. Olaf when I was in high school, when classes (one per semester) were offered to local high school seniors (by both colleges, IIRC) free of charge, credits being awarded both towards high school graduation as well as college graduation, and transferable, of course. St. Olaf is the more conservative of the two (not inordinately, I should add), is usually rated less highly academically than Carleton (though still fairly high), and has more in-state students. These days I walk the trails at both schools, catch the occasional film or volleyball match or music performance, and visit the bookstores -- I do not ever recall feeling unwelcome.

But I can't really say much at all about the academics.

Northfield is a pleasant town of 19,000+ with good schools. Nice, healthy downtown -- few vacant businesses. Entertainment is limited and low key, but the southern suburban sprawl of the Twin Cities is only about half an hour away. A lot of locals (myself included) work in the Cities.

[tropolis]

nothing in northfield. carleton the better school. i feel sorry for voyageur who is in northfield. ive been down there a few times and there is just nothing really.

im like 15 mins from you lakeville, and its night and day difference.

[Camden Northsider]

Carleton is often referred to as an Ivy League of the Midwest and has a national reputation. St. Olaf is a really good school with a lot of great programs (so you might want to post what you plan to study to get some more indepth advice), but I don't believe its reputation is as widely regarded. If I had to pick between the two, I would choose Carleton, in part because I've known many of their students/grads to be pretty active in the issues/politics that I myself am passionate about (it's a progressive/liberal school- not sure about St. Olaf).

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by tropolis

nothing in northfield. carleton the better school. i feel sorry for voyageur who is in northfield. ive been down there a few times and there is just nothing really.

im like 15 mins from you lakeville, and its night and day difference.

For southern Minnesota, I'll take Northfield; Lakeville has nothing that interests me, save for a fantastic restaurant, Porterhouse, which I enjoyed yet again last night. But a 20 minute drive to go out to eat now and then is nothing.

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by Camden Northsider

Carleton is often referred to as an Ivy League of the Midwest and has a national reputation. St. Olaf is a really good school with a lot of great programs (so you might want to post what you plan to study to get some more indepth advice), but I don't believe its reputation is as widely regarded. If I had to pick between the two, I would choose Carleton, in part because I've known many of their students/grads to be pretty active in the issues/politics that I myself am passionate about (it's a progressive/liberal school- not sure about St. Olaf).

Indeed, it has been characterized as a Hidden Ivy in at least one book:
Hidden Ivies: Thirty Colleges of Excellence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would categorize Carleton as more progressive/liberal. This is not to say that St. Olaf is 'conservative' as we would consider 'conservative' in a political sense in the United States, but it is more so than Carleton. Long ago, Carleton had a Baptist affiliation, but eventually Carleton's support for science -- specifically, biological evolution -- led the Baptists to terminate the affiliation and Carleton remains non-affiliated. St. Olaf has a Lutheran affiliation.

Carleton, of course, was the longtime workplace of Paul Wellstone before he became a United States Senator and he was rather liberal (to put it mildly).

[uptown_urbanist]

Carleton has the national reputation, and is definitely regarded as the better school of the two. St. Olaf is a good school, too, just doesn't have the same prestige factor that Carleton enjoys.

Northfield is wonderful; it's an interesting, small college town, and both colleges have a lot going on. I've seen some very big-name speakers there (as often events are open to the public), and it seems like it would be a great place to spend the college years. I didn't go to either but have known people who have graduated from both (and have met Carleton grads in many of the other states where I've lived); I'd also agree that Carleton is the more liberal (as in very liberal), but St. Olaf has its progressive side, too. It's my impression that St. Olaf has a lot of students interested in social justice issues, often with an international focus; that could just be the people I know or know of, though. Lots of teachers and peace-corp types there.

In short, they're both good schools, with the national edge going to Carleton. I considered applying to both (ended up not doing so), and retroactively I think I would have been happy at either. The people I know who graduated from there have all been friendly, and I've had some excellent professors who have taught at both. If it comes down to a decision between the two you'll need to consider your specific field of interest (in case one school has a better program in your specific area), financial aid (if relevant), and your own long-term goals. Go on campus visits, too, if you can.

(and not go off on a tangent involving Lakeville, but as not to confuse the OP: Lakeville is a suburb that's not too far from Northfield, but as Voyageur notes, the two places are like night and day. Lakeville is stereotypical American exburbia; Northfield is stereotypical small but interesting college town. For being so relatively close, it would be tough to be more different.)

I haven't been to Northfield for a couple of years, but used to get there more often and have always really enjoyed my time there.

[Camden Northsider]

Also, Carleton is going to be pretty rigorous academics-wise- to put the caliber of students it tends to attract into perspective, I would put it at the top of the list of MN schools that National Merit Scholars I went to high school with (in South Dakota) chose to attend...Macalester, the U of M-Morris (my alma mater), and the U of M-Main Campus would be the others on this list. So, don't go to Carleton unless you plan to take academics very seriously.

Depending on what you plan to study, and despite the lack of an overall national reputation (well, outside of the Golden Girls reference)- it's possible that St. Olaf could be competitive, or even have a slight edge on, some programs of Carelton's. If you are planning to study music, for instance, St. Olaf would be a better choice and have more of a national reputation for music studies/performance than Carleton.

[QuantumIguana]

It's an excellent school. I live in Minneapolis, but my wife and I often spend our anniversary at the Archer House in Northfield. We were walking down the street and smelled chocolate chip cookies, so we tried to figure out what store was baking fresh cookies so we could get some. It turned out there was no cookies. It was from the Malt-O-Meal plant which was on the edge of town. Yes, the industrial waste smells just like fresh chocolate chip cookies. I can get behind that kind of exhausts. Both Saint Olaf and Carleton have nice campuses, you'll get an excellent education.

[ozzie679]

St Olaf is a wonderful school. But if you have a chance to attend Carleton TAKE IT!!!