<p>hey guys,
I visited Carleton last week, and I'm going to visit again this upcoming month for an OVERNIGHT. woohoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>OH, i meant to ask is there anything specific I should keep in mind while visiting........ things I should look out for, things I should ask my host to show me around, etc. Help a newbieeeeeeee</p>
<p>Try sitting in on 200 or 300 level classes rather than intro classes. Prospies mostly seem to only sit in on the intro classes, but since most of the classes you'd take as a student will be upper level, just go for those instead. It will give you a much better sense of the overall academic experience than intro to macroecon or calc II or a freshman seminar or whatever.</p>
<p>Don't feel obligated to hang out with your host exclusively. If your host kind of sucks or has a lot of work, there will almost certainly be some more gung ho person on his/her floor that will take you under their wing and drag you all over the place.</p>
<p>You'll hear a lot about Dacie Moses but don't believe the hype, the vast majority of students have nothing to do with the house except for one blurry Saturday night freshman year when they wander through there drunk, eat a leftover cookie or muffin, and continue on their journey.</p>
<p>Explore downtown Northfield so that you have a good sense of what is (and isn't) in walking distance from the school.</p>
<p>Most students end up spending a lot of time in the Libe or the labs for their major departments, especially on weekday evenings and Sundays. You should wander through the Libe (or science labs of majors you're thinking of) during peak study times and try to get a sense of the stress level, group studying vs. individual studying, how social the studying experience is at those places for those people, etc. Not many people actually do this when prospying but I think it would give you a good picture of what it's like to be a student at Carleton.</p>
<p>If you're thinking about intramural sports (which are super popular), you could watch a game and maybe even join in. Likewise if you fancy yourself a bit of a hipster, go to the Cave and the KRLX studios. It's easy to find someone who has a show on KRLX, just ask around. Same deal with choir, a cappella groups, orchestra, and clubs. You can read the NNB in the dining hall or online to find out what's going on that night besides regularly scheduled meetings, and your host should be able to help you out there.</p>
<p>Talk to upperclassmen to the extent that you can, and not just freshmen. I think the freshman experience at Carleton is fairly different from the rest of your time there, but most visitors only see the freshman perspective. If you visit at the end of next week, the first years you meet will have been in classes for all of two weeks. They have, um, limited credibility because they're all so enthusiastic and still adjusting to living away from home and being around people their age all the time and having no curfew and omg jungle juice and wow this is so much better than high school everyone is so weird just like me yaaaaay. (This is a fact at any school, not just Carleton.) After the first year, you're much less likely to be living in a dorm where everyone on the floor loves each other and travels in a herd to dinner. So yeah, talk to upperclassmen who have picked or are working on picking majors, who have already studied abroad, who have had summer internships, who have run into stupid problems with offices on campus, who know people who transferred out, whatever. These perspectives will be helpful, especially if you get them at other places you visit for comparison purposes.</p>
<p>I would like to add one thing that a lot of people forget about overnights: remember that your host is only one person. His/her experience is not necessarily the experience you would have if you come. That is why it is so important to talk to lots of people besides your host and their friends. Carls are nice and will talk to you, so don't be afraid to ask us stuff!</p>
<p>cool, thanks so much for the answers! you guys are so helpful ... and nice.
It'd be totally weird to run into people who post in these forums during my visit?!
Do I need to bring anything or pack any special objects?? ..like toothbrush.... etc.....?</p>
<p>Pretty much just pack like you would for a sleepover.</p>
<p>starbucks08, I echo GerberDaisy's caution about your host only being one person. My son didn't do an overnight until Accepted Student Weekend; he didn't have anything in common with his host and didn't have a particularly wonderful time. </p>
<p>However, the rest of Carleton was pleasing enough that he's now in his second year there--and he loves it.</p>
<p>Just taking a moment to congratulate Limner for making the 4000th post in the Carleton forum. :.:.:.:.woohoo!:.:.:.:.</p>
<p>Do I get a prize? ;)</p>
<p>How about a Friday flower from Schiller?</p>
<p>I'll take it!</p>
<p>Pick up a copy of the Carletonian (student newspaper) and the NNB (Noon News Bulletin, which is distributed in the dining halls at lunchtime), and look at the posters you'll see on outdoor and indoor bulletin boards. Those give you a nice overview of the kind of things happening on campus, and you might see some events you want to check out during your stay.</p>
<p>If you anticipate needing certain kinds of assistance/support as a college student--whether it's disability services, tutoring, wellness counseling, help with writing or math or speaking, help finding paid summer internships, or whatever--you might want to drop by the relevant offices to chat with the staff about their services. Ditto for visiting the offices that support specific populations, if that's applicable to you: Intercultural Life, Gender & Sexuality Center, etc. You'll typically find people very willing to talk with you.</p>
<p>If you're into a varsity sport, you can arrange to talk with the coaches. The Recruit Center section of the Varsity Athletics site can direct you to more info for prospective student athletes.</p>
<p>Visit as many of the places/spaces related to your specific interests as you can, whether that's the Rec Center, the observatory, the art studios, the athletic fields or the biology labs. </p>
<p>Have fun!</p>
<p>& you'll have to tell us how it goes, because I'm doing an overnight in October :)</p>
<p>Oh, mine is in october, too.
Yours might even be earlier than mine.</p>
<p>Mine's over columbus day weekend.</p>