Carleton, Grinnell, Macalester?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello all! I'm looking at small LACs in the midwest -- Carleton, Grinnell, Macalester, and Oberlin. Carleton's probably my first choice as of right now, with Grinnell and Mac running close seconds. I'm specifically curious about my SAT scores, and if taking the test a second time would be worth it or not... thanks!</p>

<p>High School: all-girls, private, Catholic, ~400 students, college-prep. Don't send many grads to what CCers would consider "top schools"... </p>

<p>Academics: 3.91/4.00 GPA weighted. Honors weighted 4.5, AP/dual credit weighted 5.0. (Only two official AP courses are offered.) I think I've taken almost every honors I can except calculus... let's just say math and I don't get along. At all. Oh, and my school doesn't rank.</p>

<p>SAT: 760 CR, 660 M, 720 W (8 essay). 1420/2140
ACT: 32, but essay sucked so I'm just going to pretend it doesn't exist.</p>

<p>ECs: music: flute (band, competitions, etc.)
debate: annotator junior year, co-president senior year
Senior Retreat Team: leadership/service position by application. We basically plan retreats for every grade, prayer services, freshman orientation (with student council)... lots of stuff.
Habitat for Humanity
Latin club, film club, NHS</p>

<p>work: part-time (8+ hours/week) job at Barnes and Noble. Half of every paycheck goes to college savings... hopefully that will cover textbooks or something.</p>

<p>awards: honor roll, National Latin Exam maxima cum laude 3 years in a row, lots of music awards</p>

<p>And I'm a really anxious person, so I've been spending a lot of time fretting about the essay but I haven't actually started writing it yet...</p>

<p>Thanks again for reading this and any advice!</p>

2

<p>Yes, yes, I am shamelessly bumping my own thread -- but I'm really going back and forth on this retaking the SAT business... advice would be lovely.</p>

3

<p>yeah you sound like a target candidate -- although carleton will be tougher than the other two. essays are really important, so forget about numbers now and focus on them. carleton always talks about "Crafting a class" so they really want to know who you are.</p>

4

<p>You don't have a lot of ECs, and the ones you do have are pretty ordinary. However, your GPA is great, and the fact that your school doesn't rank or offer that many APs isn't an issue at all. Your SAT is strong--a</p>

5

<p>Sorry about that; my computer just crashed. Okay, as I was saying... you don't have a lot of ECs, and the ones you do have are pretty ordinary. However, your GPA is great, and the fact that your school doesn't rank or offer that many APs isn't an issue at all. Your SAT is very strong--a 2140 is a score to be proud of, especially if you've only taken the SAT once--and it's probably fine for Macalester, Grinnell, and most likely Oberlin. Carleton, though, I don't know about. It seems to me that a lot of the applicants there have SAT scores of at least 2100, and it's definitely the toughest of the four to get into. That being said, unless you think you can improve your score significantly (and it's fine the way it is), I wouldn't retake the SAT. It's just a lot of studying and stress and really, who needs that? :)</p>

6

<p>i think you have great chances in all of them. I think your ACT score is really good. you still thinking of retaking the SAT or ACT? If it were me retaking, I would focus on bumping up the ACT even more, you're almost at that elite score status. good luck poet.</p>

7

<p>for some reason through this thread I get the feeling that you'll fit into carleton ver nicely. </p>

<p>that being said, I bet you'll get into all three.</p>