About

The Carleton Liberal Arts Experience is a free, one-week residential program at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, designed for high school sophomores with an interest in African American history and culture. Carleton is one of the most respected liberal arts colleges in the United States — consistently ranked among the top three nationally — and CLAE gives students a direct encounter with its academic culture: small seminar classes taught by Carleton faculty, mentorship from current Carleton students, and residential life on campus. All costs, including travel, are covered by Carleton alumni donors, making the program fully accessible regardless of family resources.

The curriculum is interdisciplinary by design, reflecting the liberal arts philosophy of finding unexpected connections between fields. Recent course offerings have included DNA Fingerprinting and Forensic Science, Religion and the Black Freedom Struggle, Motown and American Culture, and Schooling, Opportunity, and Identities in the U.S. — courses that weave together STEM, humanities, and social science through the lens of African American community and identity. College preparation workshops led by Carleton admissions and financial aid staff run alongside coursework, covering the application process, financial aid navigation, and essay writing. Community-building activities and local excursions to Northfield and the Twin Cities round out the week.

CLAE carries real downstream value. Carleton admissions staff review CLAE alumni applications favorably, and students who are admitted to Carleton receive a reduction in loans as part of their financial aid package — a documented, institutional benefit that most pre-college fly-in programs cannot offer. For Black and African American high school sophomores who are college-bound and intellectually curious — particularly those who have not yet encountered the liberal arts college model — CLAE is among the most purposefully designed and generously supported programs in the country.