<sey Silver, Sara Hooker, and Michael McClellan share their first impressions of Carleton:
1. Where are you from?
SH: My heritage is Irish, but I grew up in Mozambique.
MM: Independence, Missouri
CS: Chappaqua, New York
2. When was the first time you heard of Carleton?
SH: I heard of Carleton while I was studying in Swaziland. An admissions guy came to my high school.
CS: A girl I met while I was working on a farm told me about it. [And I decided to come here] on prospy weekend. The Dean of Admissions started singing at dinner in the Great Hall, and he said, “You’ll get more of that later.”
3. Why did you choose Carleton?
SH: It was such a departure from going to the UK, where I kind of thought I’d be going. And I was excited about the prospect of studying in the U.S. because of the diversity and the different style of education that I would have.
MM: Carleton had some of the best programs I was looking at, and they were also very generous with financial aid.
CS: The sense of community here is different than at most of the other schools.
[Also] I like the idea of playing broom ball on the Bald Spot, and of Schiller. I’m not even sure what that is, but everyone seems to be so insane about it. [And] I really liked the idea of Friday Convo, and how it is scheduled so everyone can come to it.
4. What did you write your essay about?
SH: My internship with the UN World Food Program, and about the challenges that that presented. And about how that made me realize that you need a different kind of education to face those kinds of issues in the world today. And that as what attracted me to the liberal arts education.
MM: I wrote my essay about how my dad’s living abroad has effected my life and my interest in languages and cultures.
CS: I wrote my regular common app essay about the movie “Patch Adams.” In my community I dressed up as a clown with makeup and went to the hospital.
5. What did you do this summer?
SH: This summer I did an internship with an NGO, Value Added in Africa, which promotes ethical trade between Africa and Ireland. And I worked at a bunch of music festivals
MM: I worked as a cashier at a health food store, and I spent five weeks living with my dad in London.
CS: I worked at a camp for under privileged kid. I worked at the adventure station. We did team building games and rock climbing.
6. What extra-curriculars did you do in high-school?
SH: I was on the student government, I taught English at a local school, and I was a peer counselor.
MM: I did quiz bowl, marching and jazz band, and I was on the math team.
CS: I played electric base in a Jewish klezmer, I played standup base in high school, I visited a woman who has ALS, I juggled, I rode my unicycle, and I worked on the senior musical: Zombie Prom.
7. What are you surprised to see here?
SH: So many things…fist of all the food is just crazy. It’s so good, cheese curds, sloppy joes… I just love American food so much… I was [also] surprised at how hot it was. I came with my extra jacket in my handbag because I thought I’d need it when I got off the plane.
MM: I expected it to be a lot colder than it is now…you hear horror stories about Minnesota’s winters and you expect it to translate throughout the year.
CS: New student week leaders singing on the Carleton sign.
8. What do you want to do after college, if you could choose anything right now?
SH: A tour of the US: Las Vegas, Mississippi, and Alaska.
MM: I’m kinda split. I always thought I’d maybe want to go into medicine, but I also thought maybe I’d be a teacher.
CS: I want to be a chef or a doctor… I make a mean chocolate chip cookie.
9. What’s your favorite building on campus and why?
SH: I really like Nourse. Maybe I’m biased because I’m living there, but I really like it because it’s a nice old building.
MM: Nourse, my dorm, because we have such a great lounge, we got the theater in the basement, and my floor is kind of the hub of my social activity right now.
CS: My favorite is between the LDC because of its combination of food and learning, and Burton because its my dorm and it has the dining hall, and the Rec center because its new and you can rock climb there.
10. What’s your favorite meal in the dining halls?
SH: I really love the pizza.
MM: I’ve been very impressed that Burton always has curry around. But sometimes I get a bit weary if the curry is a few days old.
CS: Every morning I eat the seven grain toast with butter and grape jelly (the butter goes underneath the jelly and you mix them together so they swirl) and chocolate milk.
11. How many times have you seen people streak?
SH: Once, but there were like 20 people. And that’s my first time ever seeing people streak.
MM: Twice during New Student week.
CS: Three
12. What was the funniest, weirdest, or best part about new student week?
SH: The weirdest part were the icebreakers. They’re American, I had never even heard of those game before.
MM: The NoOlympics was my favorite part. We dressed up as zombies. One guy had leather pants and a white jacket, and we choreographed a dance routine. We won the spirit award…we got a huge stuffed cow, but someone stole it…we think it was third Musser but we can’t confirm that.
CS: I had the best new student week leaders, Jo Jo and Lindsey…I liked that we all pulled buckthorn together. I loved NoOlympics…We were pool balls, and our RA was the pool shark.