Now that you have the time, you can read through a thread in this forum where Carleton receives some comments: “Accepted to 15 Colleges …” The thread has extra value because the OP comes back to post her final decision.
CC has everything you are looking for academically and socially, don’t worry about rankings/prestige as CC students are an incredibly bright, engaged, active group and can go on to whatever interests them. The profs are fabulous and you can’t go wrong with Coloado College!
Two major distinguishing features are the Block Plan at CC and the Minnesota winters at Carleton. Both are intense. So if you’re not down with the BP, don’t pick CC. If you’re not comfortable with winter weather, don’t pick Carleton.
Northfield and the Carleton campus are nice enough but are fairly out in the middle of nowhere (though the Twin Cities are within 45 mins or so by car). Colorado College gives you the best of three worlds: an Ivory Tower enclave within a mid sized city at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. CC also offers a couple of D1 sports programs (men’s hockey and women’s soccer), in case you’re a sports fan.
If you are seriously considering a career in academia, go to Carleton. Otherwise, I think CC is a livelier more interesting setting to spend 4 years.
Colorado Springs is only about 10 degrees warmer than Northfield. It’s not exactly Alabama.
With over 300 days of sunshine a year (and very low humidity) believe me Colorado Springs has a vastly different climate from Northfield!
Do you want to be a student with average abilities at your college, or one of the stronger students? You don’t post your stats, but if you got into Carleton off the waitlist, you would be an upper echelon student at CC.
Some kids strongly prefer one scenario over the other, and there is no right answer. But that is the likely situation and choice you will have at these two schools.
Good luck!
Carleton does seem to be somewhat underrated in this thread. By SAT scores, Carleton is 26th nationally; Colorado College is 69th. If Carleton students are reputationally more academically oriented than CC students, this could be part of the explanation. For this and other reasons, I do think graduate schools must recognize Carleton as one of the few schools they respect as being truly top tier academically.
With respect to your interest in the outdoors, the Carleton students I’ve met have been interested in nature.
I’ll add my numbers here, I got a 30 on the ACT and have a 3.89 GPA unweighted, I’m a french immersion student who completed the International Baccalaureate program and got a 4 on the AP french test. I also went into the admissions process with over 400 hours of community service! So academics are definitely an important factor for me, and im not that affected by the cold, it’s definitely not enough to put me off of attending Carleton, for me the biggest it factor with Carleton is whether or not Id fit in there, and I understand that yes, all colleges are going to have weird people and you’ll always find friends regardless of where you go, but for some reason I just don’t have the best feeling about carleton, and I truly don’t know why 
Ive also been unable to really find much info as to the strengths and weaknesses of both colorado college and carleton colleges economics/business programs, I know that they’re both great schools and are great options to have to choose from so im lucky with that respect, but I’m really starting to feel the weight of the decision and really don’t want to make the wrong one.
As of right now I’m leaning towards colorado, I understand what I’d be majoring in and how to accomplish that with the block program is rather straightforward and easy to follow which is very nice, and I know carletons strong across the board but I also have to consider that I’ll be living in either colorado or Minnesota for 4 years and as much as I don’t want it to, it’s definitely going to weigh on my decision as to me there’s more to college than just school… Sorry for that tangent, it’s 2:00 am
Thank you guys so much!
“I’ve also been unable to really find much info … [on] Colorado’s and Carleton’s economics/business programs.”
That is hard to research. This is one listing I’ve seen: “Top 25% U.S. Economics Departments at Liberal Arts Colleges, as of May 2015” / IDEAS.
The analysis comes with a significant caveat: “The data presented here is experimental.”
The OP’s composite ACT score would fall within the median band at either college. In 2013 the 25th/75th percentile ranges were 29/33 at Carleton v. 27/32 at CC. Carleton is a more selective college, but judging from the OP’s score alone, he’d be more-or-less “average” at either school.
Carleton ranks among the top schools for per capita PhD production (the percentage of alumni who earn doctorates). This may reflect differences in academic quality in some departments. Or, it may only reflect different student interests (which may or may not translate to differences in academic atmosphere).
You could look through the courses, faculty rosters and CVs at both colleges in a few departments that interest you. In both econ departments, I see ~10-15 professors with impressive degrees and publication histories.
You also might want to look at the entries on StudentsReview. Keep in mind that you won’t necessarily get a representative sample of student opinions on this site. However, it might give you insight into a few things students tend to like/dislike about each school.
“for some reason I just don’t have the best feeling about carleton, and I truly don’t know why…”
This statement particularly struck me…Don’t rule out what your gut is telling you! It’s good that you have the weekend to reflect - but sometimes you already know what feels right, even if you can’t articulate why! Just sayin… 
Carleton is a more selective school in terms of having higher stats and a higher USNews ranking however Colorado College is more selective in terms of having a lower acceptance rate. Both schools are wonderful and they actually have a large overlap in terms of applicants and therefore somewhat similar student bodies. The most notable differences are in course structure (trimester vs block plan) and location.
@ryan6044 - I sent you a PM earlier.
As others have stated, the 2 schools are academically comparable, and the biggest difference boils down to the structure of the academic calendar (block system vs trimesters) and the location. The OP did not elaborate on what he likes to do outdoors, but unless Nordic skiing is his main passion, Colorado Springs offers far more opportunities for outdoor adventure in reasonably close proximity to campus - world class downhill skiing, peak bagging, hiking, whitewater kayaking, and rock climbing to mention a few. And the weather in the Springs is fantastic - unless you don’t like dry, sunny, bluebird days.
@ryan6044 If you plan to go to grad school either is a great choice. If not, it is always better to pick a more mainstream choice and that would be Carleton.
OP will be in approximately the 60th percentile at CC and approximately 33rd percentile at Carleton. That is a big difference in terms of how competitive the OP will be.
That being said, both great schools, and there is no reason OP cannot succeed, and pursue grad school coming from either school. It certainly sounds like the OP wants to go to CC, so the decision likely will be for that school.
Good luck!
Colorado’s president is an economist who occasionally teaches in the econ department. Just throwing that out there.
Way late to the party here…
Carleton’s president teaches political science here (at Carleton) and while Northfield doesn’t have… brrr… the best climate, it receives tons of sunlight so that isn’t what distinguishes the two places, @ post #24.
Anyway, I agree with what some of the others have said. You’ll want to be competitive for grad school if you continue on the international political economy path. Go where your gut tells you; you’ll probably stand out more at Colorado College. That’s not meant as a thinly-veiled insult, it’s blunt advice that I wish somebody would have told me before I decided on a school.
Beg to differ with the claim of “tons of sunlight” in Northfield. I have lived in Minnesota and Colorado, and Colorado is sunnier - by a wide margin. Northfield averages 192 sunny days/yr, compared to 243 sunny days/yr in Colorado Springs.
The weather in the Springs and all along the Front Range north to Fort Collins is fantastic. Northfield? Great weather? Nope.
I was never a fan of Colorado weather- it’s wildly unpredictable. Yeah, it may be sunnier for more days…but halfway through the day it starts to snow/hail! In CO it can be 70 in February and 45 in June. I wouldn’t necessarily say it wins on the weather front here, especially if you like winter (which I do).