This is the official page for those who got waitlisted for Carleton class of 2022. Does anyone know the waitlist statistics of the past few years?
The Common Data Set is a really great tool to use to look at admission statistics, including waitlist statistics. Here are some recent stats I pulled:
2017-2018: 1315 put on waitlist, 521 accepted a spot, 41 were accepted
2016-2017:1366 put on waitlist, 533 accepted a spot, 2 were accepted
2015-2016: 1350 put on waitlist, 442 accepted a spot, 16 were accepted
2014-2015: 1275 put on waitlist, 371 accepted a spot, 9 were accepted
2013-2014: 1424 put on waitlist, 486 accepted a spot, 0 were accepted
As you can see, there’s a lot of variation. Admissions over-enrolled a couple years back, which they REALLY don’t want to happen again given the difficulties it can pose. However, if you’re currently on the waitlist and are looking for some potentially positive news, the Carletonian mentioned this today for the class of 2022:
"Our acceptance rate was lower than it’s ever been, 19.4 percent, which I think will end up being about 20 percent if we end up going to the waitlist. It’s unclear if we’ll go to the waitlist right now, but… we can anticipate likely going to the waitlist this year,” Mackey said. (Here’s the link: https://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/?story_id=1700382&issue_id=1700375)
Son waitlisted 
He did the summer science program last year (for college credit) and was disappointed since he really loved being on campus. Even included Carleton on match list for Questbridge. Oh, well.
Right now trying to decide if he wants to remain on waitlist or just go with one of his two excellent options…
Since it is so far away for us I can’t say that I am sorry, as we would love having him closer to home, but I am disappointed for him. He is interested in sciences and from what I have read, of all the schools (LACs) this one seemed to be a good “fit.”
Good luck to everyone!
Does anyone know when the waitlist decisions will be released?
@skonda2018 Unless Carleton does something very different from every other college I’ve heard of, there is no “decision date” for waitlist. You are either called, or you aren’t. When you are talking about a tiny number of people, they are literally contacting a person at a time. My daughter was WLed two years ago. She sent a LOCI, etc… Carleton kept people on the wailtist updated with two letters. The final letter was to say they weren’t taking anyone off waitlist. That was the year they took 2 people, which is effectively no one. It is unlikely to happen, so be sure to deposit at another school.
If you’re not accepted off the wait list, are you going to receive a mail telling you you weren’t picked or you are just going to be left in the dark?
@Kwakhu Most schools inform students when their class is full and the waitlist is done being used. Usually this is done by Mid May to June 1st with a very few people sometimes remaining on the waitlist throughout the summer. Good luck to you!
Has anyone received an offer off the waitlist yet?
My D accepted her place at Carleton on April 30th but just got off the waitlist at Pomona a few hours ago and will be accepting Pomona. Hopefully that will open a space on this waitlist. We love Carleton but the weather of California beckons. Hang in there.
Has anyone gotten off the wait list yet? Are they any updates so far?
Nope. The wait is killing me.
I called the admissions office to ask them when the waitlist decisions will be released. They said they are still making the decisions and that they will notify students throughout this month.
Does anyone know when the decisions usually come out each year?
Thank you for writing. I’m glad to hear you are still interested in Carleton. Unfortunately, we do not have any open spots in our freshman class at this time. This may change over the next few months or it may stay the same - it’s hard to predict at this point.
I received this email from an admissions officer. Anyone else with any update. :((
@Kwakhu I didn’t receive that. Did they send it to everyone?
I didn’t recieve that email either, but I’m guessing from that email that they are probably not going to take anyone off the waitlist or if they do ending up doing so, very few (approximately 1 or 2 students) will be accepted off the waitlist.
No. I don’t expect anyone else to have received this mail. It was sent to me by an admission officer i have been having correspondence with lately. That was just a reply to one of my emails.
I’m almost dead… :((
Just heard back from Carleton. I didn’t make it off the wait list.
I know they’ve admitted at least one student from the waitlist. This was just last week. Good luck!