<p>Anyone knows whether Carleton is renowned for these three departments?</p>
<p>I've been wondering along these lines, too. All the reviews I've read stress Carleton's math/science.</p>
<p>Carleton is very strong in English and History. Don't know about philiosophy.</p>
<p>Those are all strong departments, history and English in particular. You should take note that the English department is much more focused on literary analysis than on creative writing, though. Some people are disappointed to find out that Carleton's offerings are pretty limited, as far as short story/poetry writing classes go.</p>
<p>I don't think English is known for being especially strong. The English majors I knew seemed kind of disappointed with the department and we don't seem to place a whole lot of people in top English grad programs. But I knew only a couple of English majors and never took an English course, so I don't really know.</p>
<p>Philosophy is much smaller and very close-knit. The professors are all very good. </p>
<p>I think History is one of the best departments on campus, but I'm probably kind of biased. Most of the professors are really great (North, Prowe, etc.), while only a couple are not-so-great (Zabin, Jeffrey). I don't know that Carleton is really "renowned" for any particular department.</p>
<p>Glad to hear the History department is strong.</p>
<p>Again with the English major-- I looked here[/url</a>] and am semi-confused about the courses. Are there any English majors/people who are close with English majors who can elaborate on the freedom? As in, I love Creative Non-Fiction (love love love!) and taking a class on it ([url=<a href="http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/english/courses/descriptions0607/#ENGL180%5DEnglish">http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/english/courses/descriptions0607/#ENGL180]English</a> 180) seems like it would be a fantasy. If you decide to take the English major, is there room for classes such as this in the literature-dense major?</p>
<p>Why wouldn't you be able to? It doesn't count toward the major, but there's not reason you couldn't take it.</p>