Just visited Carleton College in Minnesota where the students bill themselves as “quirky.” Can any former or current students elaborate on what this means?
I will give it a try. I attended in the 1990s, as did my husband and his sister. My daughter will be attending next fall after her gap year. I also know a couple current students. The students tend to be intellectually curious, a little intense and driven, but not particularly competitive with each other. A lot of the students have interests that may not seem to fit together. For example, my daughter loves dance, physics, and philosophy. They aren’t really self-consciously weird or outsiders. It’s a Minnesota/Midwestern nice variety of quirky.
Hmm…students don’t feel like they have to be like anyone else. They don’t have to conform to a certain look or way of behaving (i.e. acting cool). They don’t conform to being quirky either.
Students are just themselves and are accepted as such by everyone else. The culture is tolerant and supportive. I guess that is what gives students the freedom to be who they are and not worry about it.