<p>I was wondering where I could find info on which departments at Carleton are strong and which aren't so strong. Would also appreciate it if current students offer their opinions.</p>
<p>Also, I know the Carleton trimester system is supposed to be pretty cool and all, but is there a downside to it? Surely there must be reasons why not every other college in the US is adopting it? I know next to nothing about the specifics of college education in America, being an international from a tropical country, so I thought I should ask.</p>
<p>Are there any other not-so-great things about Carleton I might want to know about?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance. I've already made my mind up about attending Carleton but I don't want to get my hopes up way too high only to be disappointed. Being realistic is kinda important to me so I'd like to know what to expect. :)</p>
<p>I don't know much about the other departments. I plan on attending Carleton in the fall. I'd suggest looking at the course lists for the three departments you listed.</p>
<p>Carl alum here. The English major is quite strong, with a lot of VERY specific courses (half term course on Paradise Lost, Seminar on Jane Austen encompassing everything she ever wrote - including juvenalia written at age 12) and some of the most beloved professors on campus (it is typically 3rd-5th most popular major). I recommend looking up the online course catalog for more info. I didn't do French, but it is fairly large and they do a VERY cool program to Mali most years. I also didn't take any philosophy (although lots of history, religion, and psychology) but a very good friend there was a philo major and seemed very pleased with the courses offered and the professors (as a general rule, almost all the professors are terrific, so course offerings play a bigger role in strength of programs).</p>
<p>The downside to the trimester system is a summer break that starts several weeks later than that of most schools on semesters, which is annoying because internships, summer programs, summer research opportunities, etc. are often timed around the schedules of semester students, not quarter/trimester students. This means you might want to do an REU, but oops, you have to be there in the last week of May and your classes aren't even done by then, damn. Most places are pretty flexible, but for some larger formal internship programs with a required orientation, you might be screwed. Basically you just need to shoot off an email or make a call if it seems like that will be the case for things you want to apply to.</p>
<p>All the science departments are really strong. Physics in particular has been kind of an all-star recently, sending a large proportion of its graduates into really good grad programs. Just for the class of 2006, there are people at MIT (3), Columbia, Rice, Duke, and a few other grad schools...and there were only 19 physics majors so some more may choose to go to graduate programs in the next few years.</p>
<p>English is a huge, huge department, a little less consistent in quality than some smaller departments, but it definitely has some insanely popular professors and courses. Relatively few English majors go on to grad programs, though, compared with other departments, and I don't think this is commentary on the strength of the department so much as just the lack of interest in a grad degree in English. Whether the department meets your needs or not depends on your interests and post-college ambitions, and I think you can get a good idea of that from the online course listings. Philosophy and French Studies are much smaller departments, though not too small. I haven't taken any philosophy courses but I have taken a few in French and enjoyed the professors immensely. Carleton also has two French off-campus programs, one in Paris and one in Mali, both very popular and not limited to majors.</p>
<p>Although the plus side of the trimester is that you have another opportunity for travel/research/job shadowings during the 6 week winter break with NO competition from students from other schools. But yes, the unusual summer is probably the biggest detriment.</p>
<p>Yes, in my experience, the reason fewer English majors are going into grad programs is the EXTREMELY low number of professorships available for the number of English PhDs. Frankly, it is just a very risky field to pursue at this time.</p>
<p>LACalum or dietcokewithlime, what do most students do during that six-week break? I think it sounds great, but it's a long span of time in the middle of the year.</p>
<p>Any number of things. Some people stay on campus and work or do research with professors. Some go home and work (its a REALLY easy time to get a job for a month). There are some one month study abroad programs during that span that follow up classes you can take in the fall term. Some people probably watch a lot of TV on the couch...</p>
<p>Oh I was wondering, do all jobs for the work-study pay at the same hourly rate? I think it was $9.87/hr or something. Do off campus jobs and internships pay more? I have no idea what it's like in the US.</p>
<p>During the six-week break, you can get a retail/seasonal job long before any other college students are able to. Lots of people do that or go back to working a job they had in high school just to make some extra money. It's harder to get more substantial work experience over those break but some people do, and a handful of Carleton alums will create special winter break internships each year for Carleton students. Job shadowing is another option, though I don't imagine that too many Carleton students do that. The people who stay at Carleton over the winter break are largely international students, but you definitely can work on-campus at a rate slightly less than the work-study rate for something to do. Northfield would be boring as hell at that time of year, though. Each year there are a couple of winter break off-campus programs, too, like dance in Jamaica or jazz history in New York or art in the Netherlands. There's a list somewhere on the OCS webpage if you're interested. My freshman year I hung out with a friend who was taking a year off before attending college, and we drove around the west coast visiting friends at their schools in California/Oregon/Washington, good times. It's a good time to travel, prices are lower because it's winter and you're not missing out on summer opportunities.</p>
<p>Almost all work-study jobs pay the same hourly rate. I think the exceptions are student dining hall managers, who get maybe a dollar or two more. Student dining hall managers are basically normal dining hall workers, they serve food and all, but they also supervise the other workers. If you want to work off-campus, it'll probably be waiting tables or working at Hogan Bros or the like, and I don't know exactly what the rate is, but I doubt that it's better. You'd only want to work off-campus if you really need more hours than Carleton will give you.</p>
<p>Re: Nov/Dec break. D worked one year and vegetated the next two. Soph and Jr years' fall courses took alot out of her and she craved (and needed) to read, cook dinner for us, and in general, do nothing. She would see her friends for a day or two at Thanksgiving before they returned for their last few weeks of school and final exams. She relished being done and hearing about how they had a paper, homework, or test due. Without her friends around, we had about three weeks of quality family time before they returned just before the holidays.</p>
<p>M&B, the break sounds great in a lot of ways. And I know my H (who's is dreading our son going away) loves the idea of having him home for six weeks. </p>
<p>DCwlime, thanks for the info on the six-week break. I know S likes the thought of being able to earn some money in that time.</p>