<p>So I heard that Carleton has tri-semesters - is that correct? If so do students usually take 2 classes at a time? What kind of credit requirements (core?) does Carleton have? Lastly, is it possible (easy to) to study aboard? </p>
<p>Thanks...</p>
<p>Students usually take 3 classes per term. I’ll leave it to someone else to explain the distribution requirements (you can find them on the website, too). It is very easy to study abroad. Carleton offers several excellent options, and with the trimester system it is possible to do two programs abroad. You can also arrange to do a non-Carleton sponsored program, but it would be advisable to do that in the fall when you would only miss one term rather than in the spring when you would miss two terms.</p>
<p>The distribution requirements are being completely overhauled so what I say now probably won’t even apply to someone entering next year, but here goes:</p>
<ul>
<li>1 “writing rich” course or AP English score of 5. These are usually freshmen intro classes that have you writing maybe 5 papers during the term, some revision encouraged or required.</li>
<li>Writing portfolio, consisting of 3-5 papers meeting a bunch of absurdly specific criteria that prevent students from showcasing their best writing, due at end of sophomore year. Most people submit some dull bio lab report and a couple of papers from English or history classes, slap together a sappy cover essay talking about how they thought they were a good writer until they came to Carleton, and call it good.</li>
<li>Language courses through the 204 level (or 205 for Asian languages). If you start a language fresh at Carleton, this is 4 or 5 classes. You can place out depending on how good your high school foreign language instruction was.</li>
<li>1 “recognition and affirmation of differences” (RAD) class. Classes that are designated as RAD are pretty arbitrary, but if it’s about gender studies, religions beside Christianity, non-western history, or anthropology, it’s probably a RAD course.</li>
<li>2 arts & literature classes (music, English, studio art, art history, cinema and media studies, some upper-level foreign language classes).</li>
<li>3 math & science classes (bio, chem, physics, math, computer science, geology, astronomy).</li>
<li>2 humanities classes (history, religion, philosophy, classics).</li>
<li>3 social science classes (economics, political science, anthropology, sociology, psychology).</li>
<li>4 PE classes. Bestest requirement evar!!!11 These are 0 credits so they don’t count as one of your three classes each term.</li>
</ul>
<p>Oh, and study abroad is way easy to do at Carleton, even compared to other schools that send similarly large percentages of their students abroad. I went on a non-Carleton program that had standing approval by the Off-Campus Studies office, which means if you’re accepted to do the program, Carleton will more or less rubber stamp your petition to go off-campus and get credit, no additional restrictions imposed. Lots and lots of programs are pre-approved and it’s a very easy process for anyone who is vaguely on-track academically. One thing I learned while abroad from American students at other schools (mostly other small LACs) was that their home schools often require some extra language courses or made you go through some elaborate process to get credit for each particular course. For me Carleton was like, take whatever the hell you want, we don’t care.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! So, you would usually take 9 classes per year? Also I read over Carleton’s common set data and it seems like most of their classes are 30 students or less, but how are the class sizes usually distributed? Are most of the larger classes intro classes? Also are most of the classes lecture based or discussion based? Sorry for all the questions, but I’m really intrigued by Carleton and thought I would find out as much as I could before considering a campus visit :)</p>
<p>Yes, 9 classes per year is the standard load. I should add that seniors often take slightly less because of prior AP credits so that they can focus on senior comps projects (which does have credits associated with it like a class, but the credits don’t really capture the sickening amount of time and energy that comps can take up) or graduate a term or two early. If Carleton changes the AP credit policy–which it has reason to do, as fewer people graduating early = more tuition money–then I think you’ll see seniors taking more intense loads.</p>
<p>Classes are generally pretty small, maybe 15-25 people is typical. The main exceptions are the introductory bio sequence, which are your sort of classical big college lectures with around 80 people, and some other intro classes can have more like 30-50 people. The majority of classrooms can’t really hold more than 30 people, so there’s physical limitations to having large classes. You can get an idea of how big classes are by looking at the number of people registered in departments you’re interested in: <a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/registrar/schedule/[/url]”>http://apps.carleton.edu/campus/registrar/schedule/</a></p>
<p>Formats are both lecture-based and discussion-based, though I’d say most classes are a hybrid. It varies by subject, length of the class, professor style, upper vs. lower level. Even in my most lecturey classes, students were very engaged and asked lots of questions, so it wasn’t just the professor droning on for 70-100 minutes.</p>
<p>Carleton’s trimester system probably most closely overlaps Dartmouth’s rather than those found at Chicago or Northwestern, for example. </p>
<p>As fireflyscout and dietcokewithlime already pointed out, pretty standard are 3 courses a term, 9 per year, 36 upon graduation. As organized, the system allows for, typically, at least one more course yearly than would be case at most semester based LACs like Pomona. There, four courses twice yearly tends to be the rule.</p>
<p>In reality, though, many kids graduate with more than 36 courses to their credit. In addition to AP credits, lots of Carls add on partial credit courses during the year. Labs, instrumental or voice classes, foreign language “Coffee and News” once weekly news discussions in Spanish, French, etc. are examples. While a full course is typically 6 “units,” these courses are usually 2. This allows a lot of kids to push the envelop a bit when they have the time and also allows for greater weighting of some courses (e.g. lab based science classes) to balance the heavier workload inevitably associated with these.</p>
<p>During Comps (Carleton’s version of a senior year thesis) or if doing independent research, if you need to free up extra time you can also reverse direction. It’s generally easy to cut back to even fewer than 3 courses if specific circumstances so demand.</p>
<p>Carleton sends a very large number of kids to study abroad (more than 2/3). Unless you’re planning an entire year away, it’s generally easiest if pursued in the fall. And it is easy. In the fall, you have the flexibility to hook up with either a trimester or a semester program. You should know that Carleton has an unusual number of its own programs along with tons of affiliates.
[Carleton</a> College: Off Campus Studies](<a href=“http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/ocs/]Carleton”>http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/ocs/)</p>
<p>spratleyj: Any idea what you’re interested in studying?</p>
<p>Wow you people are amazing! I’m pretty sure that I’m going to major in physics - right now I plan on going through grad school, etc. I’d like to hold a position similar to Leonard Susskind or Kip Thorne; that is theoretical physics. </p>
<p>The reason I’m really interested in Carleton is that it seems to have an excellent physics program without sacrificing the rest of a liberal arts education. While MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, etc might have better physics programs I’m more interested in Reed, U of Chicago, and Carleton because they’re not 1-dimensional schools which focus exclusively on science/math/engineering.</p>
<p>This has nothing to do with your questions, but it’s interesting that you mention Kip Thorne–he visited Carleton in… fall term I think? He gave a lecture and visited at least one of the astronomy classes.</p>
<p>Great physics program (and popular).</p>
<p>dietcokewithlime, that’s the first time I’ve heard of a change in distribution requirements. What kinds of differences should we expect next year?</p>
<p>spratleyj</p>
<p>Thought I remembered recent “Physics” thread - revived FYI</p>
<p>On top of the 3 classes per term, a lot of students also take a PE course or a music lesson. Also, the hard science courses usually have a lab section in addition to the regular class.</p>
<p>With the exception of language courses (which meet every day), most courses are either on M-W-F or T-Th.</p>
<p>Oh, and while there are distribution requirements at Carleton, there are usually so many wildly different courses that satisfy them that you’ve got a lot of flexibility. It’s not a place where everybody has to take a set-in-stone list of required classes. And although those requirements will be changing, I doubt that inherent flexibility will change. It’s very much a Carleton thing.</p>
<p>Does anyone have a link to some information about the changing distribution requirements? I’m curious.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s publicly posted info about it yet. It doesn’t take effect until fall of 2010.</p>
<p>mflevity:</p>
<p>lunitari’s right. The new graduation requirement haven’t been posted because they haven’t yet been decided. Still being hashed out. Probably won’t affect your Class of 2013 anyway (rules in place at the time you start in the fall are the rules that dictate your next 4 years, no matter what changes come thereafter). </p>
<p>In any case, all the proposals being discussed involve even FEWER, not more, distribution requirements (i.e. more leniency, more freedom to choose). Requrements as they currently exist are pretty liberal, generally easily fulfilled.</p>