Chances, Please?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carleton College
1

<p>I'm a white female from a medium-sized city in Illinois. I go to a private Catholic school, which is one of the best high schools in the academically-deficient area.</p>

<p>Class Rank: 29/327
I have ADD and I struggled my first two years, but my grades have improved enough that I've moved up 55 places since first semester freshman year.
GPA(W): 4.3333</p>

<p>Standardized Testing
PSAT: 218 (I don't remember all my subscores, but I got 80 in CR)
SAT CR/M/W/T: 760/800/690/2250
I'm considering retaking the SAT to bring my Writing score above 700, but I don't know if there will be time.
ACT: 33
I will be taking the SAT-IIs in Literature and Math 2 in about a month. I did no prep for the SAT or ACT, but I got Princeton Review books and hopefully will do pretty well.</p>

<p>APs:
European History (10th): 5
U.S. History(11th): 5
Calculus AB(11th): 4
English Lit/Comp (11th): 4
This year: Calculus BC, English Lang/Comp, Spanish, and Psychology.</p>

<p>ECs:
- I'm a figure skater, with my Intermediate Freestyle and Novice moves tests. Freshman through Junior years I competed on a synchronized skating team. This takes up a big chunk of my life.
- For 11th and 12th grades, I've been on my school's varsity Scholastic Bowl team. I was in the top 10 tossup-scorers in our conference, and will probably be captain or co-captain this year.
- This year I will be applying for National Honor Society.</p>

<p>Awards:
- National Merit Scholarship semifinalist
- Gold Medal on the National Spanish Exam, Level 4 (97th percentile)
- Outstanding Student of AP European History
- Outstanding Student of AP US History
- 27th in the 2004 National Spelling Bee
- National Language Arts League</p>

<ul>
<li>My essay is about how the spelling bee shaped my interest in linguistics, which is my hopeful major. I like it quite a bit, and so did my English teacher.</li>
</ul>

<p>I really like everything I've read about Carleton... What do you think?</p>

2

<p>Obviously these things are hard to predict, but you should certainly be a very solid candidate. Good luck!</p>

3

<p>I won't comment on chances.</p>

<p>However, I do want you to know that Carleton is starting to beef up its linguistics department, but it's still very small and you still need to special major in it. The department has a list of all its planned courses by term from now until 2011 up: <a href="http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/ling/courses/curriculum/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/ling/courses/curriculum/&lt;/a> You should read over the Carleton linguistics webpages carefully and make sure that the department has enough of what you want. Also keep in mind that there are so few linguistics faculty that if your learning style doesn't jibe with their teaching style, you won't find majoring in it very fun. Visit and sit in on a linguistics course taught by the dept. chair, for sure, since he's the only permanent fixture in the department.</p>

<p>Swarthmore has a fantastic linguistics department. Make sure Swat's on your college list.</p>

4

<p>Pomona's is great too, I can say that from experience.</p>

5

<p>Your chances look excellent. With such strong math/verbal SAT subsets, I'd have trouble suggesting you put yourself through the trouble (? torture) of taking the test yet again solely to raise your score on the generally less influential writing section.<br>
Carleton is a phenomenal place. If you haven't, drive over from Illinois and see for yourself if the fit is right.</p>