Admission - which is harder - Carleton vs Middlebury?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carleton College
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<p>Please forgive me if this is a rather silly question,</p>

<p>I got waitlisted at Middlebury and Vassar through Regular Decision,
but if I were to reapply to Carleton(for freshmen year) by Early D this upcoming year, do you think I'd have a good chance of acceptance? </p>

<p>Reading over the discussion board, I got the impression that Carleton is a much similar LAC to Middlebury and Vassar, so I'm trying to compare. </p>

<p>(when I applied to Midd and Vassar the first time, I showed absolutely no interest and even forgot to hand in the whole apps. so I was thinking about applying to one of those schools again by ED, totally committed this time, then I discovered Carleton and soooo in love. But say, if Carleton is more difficult to get into than those two other schools, I can't risk wasting my ED) </p>

<p>I'm not asking you to chance me for carleton, bur rather compare of which you think is more difficult to get accepted into, or even better, general characters of the two schools. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>

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<p>Middlebury and Carleton are similar in terms of competitiveness, although Middlebury's popularity has skyrocketed in the past few years, leading to a much lower acceptance rate. Carleton is more self selecting (i.e., although there are fewer applicants, there is a similar ratio of highly qualified students applying).</p>

<p>Vassar is somewhat less selective than Middlebury and Carleton, but is still among a handful of the most selective colleges in the country.</p>

<p>Keep in mind that admissions can be a crapshoot. I know some who were rejected from Middlebury but accepted to Dartmouth (early write!) and Amherst. On the other hand, I know of students who were accepted to Middlebury but rejected from much lower ranked schools. Don't base your future on where you were or were not accepted last year. Next year you'll be competing with an entirely new crop of applicants.</p>

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<p>Vassar is actually more selective than Carleton =)</p>

<p>But I like Carleton more anyways..</p>

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<p>Carleton and Vassar both have admissions selectivity ratings of 97 on another site that cannot be mentioned here.</p>

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<p>alexkaye, you don't mention where you are from. There are lots of intangibles to college acceptance. For instance, if you live on the East Coast, that may make you more attractive to Carleton and less attractive to East Coast schools, since schools strive for geographic diversity.</p>

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<p>I'm from East Coast, and I go to a nice school whose reputation is well-known to Middlebury admissions. My school has always been on pretty good terms with Vassar and Middlebury, and THAT alone always played a huge role in getting a lot of kids in every year. </p>

<p>On the other hand, I doubt that Carleton will have even HEARD of my school...No one really applies to Carleton from here. (This raises another concern[!] My school is one of those annoying "rigorous academics" places that give C's to what would be A's in normal world, and so my GPA isn't as good, but Carleton won't know that it's a hard school, et cetera.) PHew... :(</p>

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<p>Yes, they will. A school profile from the Guidance Department accompanies each application.</p>

<p>Have you decided to take a gap year? Were you admitted to any school you are considering attending?</p>

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<p>Interesting you should ask... I'm going to Carleton and one of my best friends is going to Middlebury, and from our experiences with the whole application process, the two are pretty equal in terms of difficulty of admission and selectivity. arcadia definitely hit the nail on the head when he/she said that 1) Carleton is more self-selecting (that cold Minnesota location comes into play here, for one thing) and 2) admissions is totally a crapshoot. My friend got onto Williams but was rejected from a school she considered somewhat of a safety. Like ChiSquare said, your East Coast background should give you a small boost at Carleton but may disadvantage you at Vassar and Middlebury; even if your school is on good terms with both, V and M get tons of applications from that region. If Carleton is your first choice and you really love the school, I'd seriously consider ED.</p>

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<p>I would say Midd is slightly more selective, but both are pretty similar.</p>

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<p>Thank you for the great replies everyone!! Really helpful...</p>

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<p>Carleton's acceptance rate last year was 30%. For girls it was a bit harder--about 28%.</p>

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<p>Alexkaye… Unless there’s some odd coincidence with your name, we go to the same high school… I’m that guy with the initials PS in class of 2012… and the beard ;)… think Discus last year… unless of course you’re a different Alex Kaye…
Does our school really have a good relationship with Middlebury admissions? Cuz I recently “discovered” that Midd is my dream school… I mean, it would be AWESOME if I could get in there… And I get mostly A’s and B’s (usually B+'s in my honors courses and A-'s or A’s in CP’s and electives)… Do you think I could get in?
I attempted to calculate my GPA for the past two years, I’ve got an average of 3.85 weighted…
I mean, it would be AWESOME if I could get into Middlebury, it looks like a perfect match for me…</p>

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<p>He/she hasn’t posted in over two years…</p>