Students may work independently, under the guidance of a faculty advisor, they may team up with one or more students to undertake a larger project, as long as each person identifies a part of the whole that is his or her own. Some of these projects are supported by local, state or federal agencies. Several students each year work with alums who need field assistants for their own master's or doctoral theses. These students typically carve out a small research project of their own that is related to the larger project of the alum. Carleton faculty commonly include students in their own research as junior collaborators, allowing them to tackle an appropriately scaled problem that is in some way related to the faculty member's work.
Research continues during the school year, with laboratory work, library research, and writing.
Drafts are reviewed by the faculty advisor and the final paper is submitted at the end of winter term. In addition each faculty advisor meets with his or her advisees individually and in groups while the on-campus work proceeds. In the spring students present the results of their research at formal seminars modeled after technical sessions at professional meetings such as the Geological Society of America Annual Meetings. Many student research projects are also accepted for presentation at such professional meetings and occasionally a student has a manuscript accepted for publication. All Comps papers are bound, catalogued, and placed in the Carleton Library.