Sorry to respond so late, but for future readers, it came down to 4 things. First and foremost, Carleton’s rep for great teaching. D’s high school experience wasn’t great, especially when she wanted to ask questions and dig deeper and was shut down by teachers. Second was the feeling she had that she really and truly could wander through the liberal arts and find her real place at Carleton rather than just build on what she did in high school. She’ll keep doing music and definitely study environmental science to start, but wants to have the space to explore. She felt like Carleton is really set up for that. Third - was the sum and compilation of comments and advice in this thread. It helped her to look from different perspectives and to let go of Colby. Finally, and probably least important to us, but important to her was that Carleton is well-known in the academic world at least, and highly ranked…It wasn’t the most exclusive school she got into, but it was the highest ranked by most lists and if she can succeed there, graduate school is a possibility. She has still never been to Northfield or any of the eight schools that she was admitted to save one, so there was no opportunity for her to have that “I just knew when I stepped on campus,” moment.
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