This is the official discussion thread for Carleton Class of 2027 RD applicants. Ask your questions and connect with fellow applicants.
RD Application Deadline is: January 15
Results are released at 9 pm EASTERN.
Does anyone know last year’s acceptance rate at Carleton College for RD applicants?
16.5%
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Thank you. Not much different than ED.
accepted 
1/5 for today LOL
stats for 2028
1530 sat (750 780 R/M)
8 aps, 5s on all my tests (school allows a max of 9)
97.3 W gpa (very strong upward trend)
mid ecs, mostly music-focused with some cool summer jobs and only 1 leadership position
I honestly thought my Carleton essay was one of the weaker ones
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Anyone else Waitlisted?
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Yes D is and we’re shocked. Expected a rejection. It’s probably the highest ranking LAC school she applied to. She’s not high stats like most kids here but she has some focus areas that could be considered interesting. I appreciated the tone in their letter, which made us press the button to be considered for admission.
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D23 was waitlisted as well. Like you, we were surprised (in a good way) by this result, and like you were quite impressed by the very compassionate and thoughtful approach of the WL letter. Nicely done, Carleton Admissions team.
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Congrats to everyone who got in!
I was rejected. International seeking aid. Carleton was my dream school besides harvard 
3.8UW (with 3.21 freshman), 1590 SAT
International chess master, was ranked previously 18 out of 100 million on chesscom, founded 4 clubs, varsity rugby captain, submitted both music and arts supplement. Won 3 international pysch olympiad and writing awards.
Yep…D in at Swarthmore but waitlisted at Carleton. Doesn’t make sense to me but…all good.
yield protect.
I’m sorry to hear that. You sound very qualified. The bar for international students seeking aid must be higher. My son was accepted with a slightly higher GPA (3.9 with most but not all of the APs offered at his school), similar test scores (35 ACT), but not nearly the ECs that you have.
We are feeling quite grateful that Carleton leaves some room in their class for RD applicants. I hadn’t realized at the time that my son’s other reaches admit more than 60% (Grinnell) and 70% (Middlebury) of their classes through ED.
Carleton was very high on my son’s list. His only concern is the foreign language requirement (had a negative experience in high school), but I think it will be good for him. We’ll be attending one of the admitted student days next month, and my guess is that they’ll win him over. Carleton has been my husband’s and my top choice for him all along. 
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How does the waitlist affect yield?
Edit…just googled it. Interesting concept. So the theory would be that Carleton assumed my kid would turn them down so they rejected her first to protect their yield. That seems nuts. Carleton was my kid’s third choice (out of 18). We flew from the east coast to visit it. It would seem like an insane and stupid strategy (at least in our case). Cheers,
DHD
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Thank you for your kind words and congratulations on your son’s acceptance!
Swarthmore is an awesome school! I attended their webinar and really thought this could have been the prefect school for D. We didn’t apply and wouldn’t have gotten in anyway. Congrats to your kid!
We’re WL and if you knew our stats you know we wouldn’t have turned them down!
Your kid might have been that reasoning. Ours was just not enough of what they needed to be accepted but something in her EC or essay got her on the WL which for us we’re grateful because we didn’t expect any school of that caliber to even consider us for a WL. There’s always the tiny hope though because we really love an LAC. D did have a lot of fun writing their supplemental essay. She writes well when the prompt is interesting.
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Yeah its a pretty special place. It was her ED1 choice and she got deferred. She is delighted. We are still waiting on Yale, but I think she will probably turn them down even if she gets in (I know for many that is scandalous 
)
Is your kid in someplace that he is happy with?
DHD
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LACs are special! D’s friend chose Columbia over Pomona and I always thought it was a mistake but that’s my perspective of LACs. We’re in California and I don’t think D would thrive in a UC. We’re thinking of a Jesuit school nearby. RPI gave really great merit making it equal to a UC for the money. But it’s so far with a stopover.
Middlebury has never admitted such a large percentage of kids in the ED rounds before. They had 1,326 ED applicants, up 28% over last year. They must have had a really strong pool to choose from, and also had their first group of Questbridge Scholars.