Yep, concur with everything @Waiting2exhale said. I’m kind of an Ultimate fanatic, so there’s another reason Carleton holds a special place in my heart.
The thing that struck me about the student body at Carleton is the students seemed very happy and friendly. Random smiles, greetings, offers of help, etc. They call it “Minnesota nice”, and it seems to be a real thing. There’s also a subtle quality that makes it feel just a little different than its Northeast brethren…not sure what to call it… earthiness? Relaxedness? Lack of pretension? Maybe it’s the higher percentage of public school kids, or more midwesterners? D went to a New England prep school and never felt truly comfortable there. She did two overnights at Carleton (one in the fall and again during accepted students days when she was agonizing over her final three choices) and felt totally at home.
As far as other schools we’ve visited, like I said, it’s a long list. The truth is, I liked virtually all of them. Considering just LACs D applied to, we saw Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin and Carleton, and there wasn’t a bad apple in the bunch. She probably would have thrived at any of them. We went to Davidson, too, and like @warblersrule said, it seemed like a terrific school. Mainly got crossed off the list because the only dance studio was in the the basement of the gym and had no windows (sometimes it’s the little things…)
Just in the Minnesota/Iowa area, we also saw Macalester, St. Olaf and Grinnell. Liked all of them, too! For both of my kids, it’s helped to have a few specific areas of interest where they were looking for strength, because, otherwise, it’s awfully hard to narrow down the field. There’s a lot of great schools out there.