This is the official thread for those applying ED to Carleton College.
List your unweighted GPA, any SAT /ACT scores, and ECs. What majors are you going into?
Ask your questions, the CC community is here to help!
My daughter just decided on Carleton for ED and is super excited. Any idea when they release ED decisions? It just says “by Dec 15” on the website but wondering when it’s happened traditionally. GL to any one else applying early!!
According to last year’s thread, it was December 13:
Good luck!
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Hi, my name’s Andrew! I’m planning on applying ED to Carleton and I couldn’t be more hyped!!
My u/w GPA is 3.97, ACT 34.
I’m planning on majoring in Biology with a focus on courses that tie in with Physical Therapy!
How competitive do we think the applicant pool is going to be?
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There was a brief discussion of this in the information session I attended last year. Long story short, I think Carleton gets a very competitive ED pool, particularly in terms of academic qualifications. You’ve got your usual recruited athletes and such of course, but just the sort of kid who knows Carleton is right for them is usually going to be a very strong student.
Which is not meant to be frightening. If you are qualified and know you can afford Carleton, go for it!
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Thanks for your help! I come from a low income family, so I expect to get a good amount of financial aid from Carleton. I did a campus tour and they discussed financial aid, and it seemed pretty good! I might be wrong though. I think I have the qualifications since my ACT and GPA are above the 50th percentile range for the school. Do you know if Carleton superscores ACT?? What would you expect the ED acceptance rate to be?
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Definitely run the Net Price Calculator if you have not already:
https://www.carleton.edu/admissions/apply/afford/aid-estimators/npc/
I believe they said the ED 1 acceptance rate was just over 30% this last cycle. Unfortunately, if they announced the ED 2 acceptance rate, I have not seen it. I also do not know about superscoring.
There are some more details here if you are interested:
Applications were up so the overall acceptance rate went down. 1160 offers were made in RD, 191 in ED 1, and 54 in ED 2, so ED 2 is obviously the smallest, and I suspect it might have a relatively variable admissions rate depending on what the ED 2 pool ends up looking like in a given year.
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Thanks so much for your help! I’m planning on going to graduate school for Physical Therapy, do you think Carleton would be a good fit for undergrad with this in mind?
I would think so. They reportedly have really good prehealth advising in general, and they list physical therapy as one of the things they support. An alum also put together some pages:
I also know Northfield has a bunch of experience opportunities locally, and then the Twin Cities are not far.
However, I believe they do not have Anatomy classes. My impression is prehealth kids take any required Anatomy courses online, or somewhere else in the summer/during a gap year. But you might want to consult with some real experts in this area just to be sure this works for you.
Hello, I too am from a low income family. I’m applying ED and would like to know how competitive it’ll be.
Still to write the SAT, hoping for 1550+
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Nice to meet you!! I think it’ll be really competitive, but we just have to put our best foot forward and hope for the best 
I wonder, do we have a smaller chance of getting in because we are low income?
Last I knew, Carleton was not fully need blind. They basically admitted as many applicants as they could need blind until they were estimated to be running up to the limit of their financial aid budget, and then they became need aware to stay on budget. I think in the past they have suggested this affects around 10-15% of the admit decisions. I also believe they prefer to call this “need sensitive” as opposed to “need aware”.
Assuming that is still valid, I would not personally worry about this if I was low income and applying ED. Meaning I think their ED admits are almost surely going to be coming out of the 85-90% of the admit class that was chosen need blind.
Of course if they defer you instead of admit you ED, then eventually it might become relevant (maybe, maybe not). Presumably, though, if that happens you will already have a solid set of alternatives lined up anyway. So I still wouldn’t worry about it.
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Who else is going crazy waiting? I think we’ll find out next Friday (12/13) at 8:00PM CST. Other guesses or intel?
Yes! Also going crazy for my DD who applied. How do you know it’s next Friday? I thought maybe it would be next Wednesday since they released on a Wed last year! Either way…can’t wait!!
I guess I just figured since last year was Dec 13, this year would be too. But, I like your Wednesday theory better! Either way, almost there. 
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Got a email this morning. Looks like decisions will be Thursday the 12th at 7 pm central. Good luck everybody!
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We got good news! Anyone else?
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My daughter was also accepted ED! Over the moon!!
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Congrats to all!