Carleton College

Carleton College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, the 200-acre main campus is between Northfield and the approximately 800-acre Cowling Arboretum, which became part of the campus in the 1920s. Students can choose courses from 33 major programs and 38 minor programs and have the option to design their own major. Carleton's varsity sports compete at the NCAA Division III level in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Among liberal arts colleges, Carleton is one of the highest sources of undergraduate students pursuing doctorates per 100 students. Students and alumni of the college have included 122 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellows, 112 Fulbright Scholars, 22 Watson Fellows, 20 NCAA Postgraduate Scholars, 13 Goldwater Scholars, and 18 Rhodes Scholars. History The school was founded in 1866, when the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Churches unanimously accepted a resolution to locate a college in Northfield. Two Northfield businessmen, Charles Augustus Wheaton and Charles Moorehouse Goodsell, each donated of land for the first campus. The first students enrolled at the preparatory unit of Northfield College in the fall of 1867. In 1870, the first college president, James Strong, traveled to the East Coast to raise funds for the college. On his way from visiting a potential donor, William Carleton of Charlestown, Massachusetts, Strong was badly injured in a collision between his carriage and a train. Impressed by Strong's survival of the accident, Carleton donated $50,000 to the fledgling institution in 1871. As a result, the Board of Trustees renamed the school, Carleton College, in his honor.