Hindoo

I'm curious. Do you know how many current freshman Carleton has? My daughter is one of them, but I never heard a final number.

fireflyscout

509, according to the Common Data Set

treeman

I read that Carleton got the green light to build two new dorms. I really hope that this doesn't mean that the size of the student body will increase. When I read the announcement, it would seem that the goal is to keep more students on campus. But it still opens the possibility. I think keeping total enrollment under 2000 should be a high priority. I also wonder what the dorms will look like. I am not a fan of building anything that doesn't look like it will be impressive 500 years from now. If money is an obstacle, then it might make sense to trade aesthetics for functionality. But when the endowments are in rarified air, I think anything less than mouth dropping is a mistake.

fireflyscout

According to President Oden's talk at the last Family Weekend, he wants to decrease the number of students at Carleton.

As for the new dorm complex, everyone (administration, students, Northfield community) seems pretty satisfied with the plans/aesthetics. The city of Northfield granted a waiver on the required number of parking spaces so more trees could be saved. I'll see if I can find the site with the pictures on it - it's on the Carleton website somewhere. The dorm is being built because housing has been strained for some years. Watson has forced triples (doubles converted into triples), and over 100 students each year live off-campus (many at the mercy of a particularly notorious St. Olaf slumlord).

fireflyscout

OK - here's the site with drawings and plans: https://apps.carleton.edu/campus/fac...ls/plans_maps/

limner

Thanks, firefly! I really like the architecture of the buildings.

bingle

I don't think Carleton's endowment qualifies for "rarified air"(in fact it's really impressive that they do so much with so little compared to their peer schools). However, they've kicked off a capital campaign which should help.

1190

Treeman, I couldn't agree more with each of your points and it appears that Carleton is of a similar mind.

They're starting construction this week on the two residence halls with occupancy scheduled for next year (September 2009). The buildings are designed to blend in comfortably with adjacent Nourse Hall's circa 1917 architecture. The siting looks great - it essentially takes an existing 3 sided quad and closes in the fourth side establishing a central open green space and sense of intimacy that doesn't now exist. While the look of the new buildings may be "classic," the construction will be cutting edge. True to form for the school, the buildings are being built "green" (solar panels, less impervious paving, etc.) and they've applied for a LEED Gold certification for the project (the first for any Minnesota college).

There'll be room for 230 students in the two buildings. One building will be apartment style, the other standard doubles and singles. Carleton's explained that half of the new space is devoted to increasing the number of students living on campus from around 90% to around 95% (i.e. a small number still doing Northfield option). The remaining rooms are devoted, as fireflyscout explained, to eliminating triples and "over-capacity" problems (can you say "euphemism").

The project looks great. Don't worry about gold plated faucets in the bathrooms. Any money "above and beyond" will be spent increasing energy efficiency and reducing impact on the environment. This is Carleton we're talking about.

treeman

fireflyscout -- Thanks for the update. I like what I see. I also like the emphasis on trying to save trees.

bingle -- I respectfully disagree. While Harvard may top the charts at 36 billion, and several LACs have endowments over 1 billion (Grinnell, Amherst and Smith among others), Carleton's endowment is still very healthy. When I last checked, the 650 million plus endowment ranked Carleton number 55 of ALL colleges and universities of any size, and measuring endowment per enrolled student moves Carleton significantly up that list.

bingle

Well Treeman, I have to admit that I didn't actually look at any data before posting (blush; I should know this group is too savvy).

Your point is well taken - Carleton is not exactly in the poorhouse by anyone's standard. OTOH, they are ranked 5th overall by USNWR, but 24th in financial resources which supports my recollection from time on the Annual Fund Board that our endowment was low compared with peer schools. As an alum who's been involved in fundraising for years, I do take great pride in the #1 ranking in alumni giving

Mmomm

In case any incoming freshmen are interested, I *think* we accidentally stumbled upon a way to see what dorm room you are assigned to. If you go to the Student Hub and find your Tuition Account Statement, I'm pretty sure it has the room assignment listed on it. There isn't anything about roommates though.

ctownes

Oh my goodness you're right!

I'm in Goodhue, which is the one across the lake I think. I hope it's a nice dorm. We were sent an email saying that we will be told our roommates at the beginning of next week.

Edit: someon just posted this on the facebook group and we're telling each other the dorm numbers, so if we're lucky we can match up with our roommates by tomorrow!

fireflyscout

Goodhue is a nice dorm - my daughter lived there last year. I think the lakeside rooms (as opposed to the Arbside) are a bit larger, but you get the noisy geese on the lakes - my pacifist daughter feels no mercy to geese.

If anyone has dorm questions, let me know.

limner

My son was also in Goodhue last year, on the Arb side. (Like fireflyscout's D, he's no fan of the geese.) He really liked Goodhue; its one downside as far as he was concerned is that it is the dorm farthest from the rest of campus, although he only felt this geographic negative during January and February.

carl012

Hey, does anyone know how much minimum time one should have between classes? Is ten minutes too little? Also, what do y'all think about not having any classes Tuesday or Thursday?

Oh, and I'm in Goodhue!