Electron correlation is essential to the accurate description of molecular systems. Here, parabolic quantum dots (often referred to as artificial atoms) are treated with the coupled cluster formalism of quantum chemistry to introduce correlation. Electron correlation is shown to account for between 1% and 9% of the total energy of quantum dots with from two to eight electrons and has a significant qualitative effect on the addition spectra. We employ a scaling relationship, confirmed by our calculations, which allows the treatment of quantum dots without specific reference to material properties.