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<p>Well, maybe 2 out of the 3 anyway. Carleton is pretty selective. But they are all similar enough, with a wide enough selectivity spread, that if you have a decent shot at Dartmouth then yes, the odds are high you’ll be admitted to at least one of the 4 that you are reasonably happy to attend.</p>
<p>It appears that Dartmouth’s ED acceptance rate is about double the overall rate
(~25-30% vs. ~13-15%)
[TheDartmouth.com</a> | College sees record number of E.D. apps](<a href=“http://thedartmouth.com/2008/11/17/news/earlydecision/]TheDartmouth.com”>http://thedartmouth.com/2008/11/17/news/earlydecision/)
[Dartmouth</a> College Admission 2011](<a href=“ivysuccess.com is for sale”>ivysuccess.com is for sale)</p>
<p>However, you cannot necessarily take these spreads at face value. There may be a much higher concentration of recruited athletes or legacies in the ED pool, for example. So the advantage may not be double for ED per se. My impression is that, compared to the other 3, Dartmouth (like many other top New England schools) tags a higher percentage of their applicants for athletic, “development”, legacy, or other hooks. This may have implications for the characteristics of the student body at each school. </p>
<p>Other admit rates: Colorado College - 26% ; Carleton - 27.5%; Whitman- 45.8%
(with Carleton presumably drawing from a somewhat more competitive applicant pool than the other 2)</p>
<p>Colorado by the way (can you tell I have a bias here?) is a fantastic place to study Geology. The Colorado College block plan, if it fits your learning style, gives the advantage of supporting field work more conveniently than a conventional schedule.</p>