<p>I really like Carleton and I realize that I don't have the best GPA among applicants to one of the top Liberal Arts colleges in the nation. I'm hoping that Early Decision + URM + Extracurriculars and the rest of my application could give me a bit of a boost in the process. So just out of curiosity, do I have a decent shot at Carleton?</p>
<p>Male, Massachusetts resident at top ranked public
3.3 GPA uw (I'm carrying a 4.0 so far this semester, it should be going up)
Senior course load: AP English, AP Calc, AP Physics B, H-Econ, H-Modern European, Expository Writing
AP Biology and Psychology junior year: 4's
All other courses honors, most rigorous course load available throughout my high school.</p>
<p>SATs: 790 CR, 630 M, 680 Writing (2100) retaking in October to bump up math.
SAT II: 670 Biology-E, 720 US History
National Spanish Exam: Silver medalist</p>
<p>RECS: Most likely outstanding, I was my English teacher's favorite student.
Essay: very good if I do say so myself
EC's:
-Captain of Varsity Swim Team (4 letters, league champ)
-Fully licensed EMT with 100s of on call hours and experience on ambulance and emergencies since age 16
-Active participant in Model UN, been to many conference
-Water safety instructor and lifeguard at my town beach, been working as town employee every day of every summer since I was 13 (now head lifeguard)
-A founding member of SADD (Students Against Destructive Descisions) chapter in my school
-Science fair, NHS, the regular...</p>
<p>Hooks:
-URM: Hispanic, dual citizen with Dominican Republic
-Lived abroad in Tokyo for 3 years</p>
<p>Give it your best shot–definitely keep your grades up this year, and improve your math and writing scores on the SAT if you can. Demonstrate in your application why Carleton is the school for you, and what you can add to the student body there. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Based on stats alone it would be hard to predict. But adding
your “Hooks” certainly turns you into a much stronger (and much more interesting) candidate. </p>
<p>I’ll be willing to go out on a limb here and bet you’ll be the only hispanic applicant to Carleton in your year with dual Dominican citizenship and Tokyo residency for 3 years. Preeeety sure you’ll be noticed. </p>
<p>Thanks for the help everyone, I’m visiting Carleton soon so I can really determine if it’s everything I think it is. On a side note, does anyone know if certain schools or types of schools are more forgiving of low GPAs if made up for by SAT, URM and other factors I possess?</p>
<p>If i can’t improve my SAT math score (620), is it a big problem? My intended major will probably be English, PoliSci or something like that and I’m hoping my 790 CR will draw away some of the math hate. Will I be OK?</p>
<p>Your original post said you had a math score of 630. Which is it (or did you just take it again and the math score went down)? Either way, it’s on the low side. But a 790 CR is outstanding and it should help. It all depends on who else is applying and what the admissions dept. needs to round out the applicant pool. It’s definitely worth applying.</p>
<p>Yea it was 630 that’s a typo. But I’m just not sure if I can really improve on it this Saturday, and I’m also afraid that I won’t be able to repeat a 790 or get that close. I feel I got a bit lucky that day. I know they take your highest scores from each sitting but won’t a CR score significantly lower possibly make my 790 look like an aberration, even if I do improve my math slightly?</p>
<p>My advice: relax about the CR. First off, test scores are not the be all end all of admissions, because colleges know that they are not perfect. So relax about the Critical Reading, I’m sure if your score does come down, it won’t come down that much, and the college will recognize that you are probably very talented in that area. With the Math, I would say the biggest thing that helped me was taking a class and learning all the tricks. I was always slow with math, so while I would know the answers if you gave me enough time, I would usually still have unanswered questions when the time was up. However the class I took showed me that there are tricks that they don’t teach you in standard high school math courses that lets you solve the standard SAT problems (and they are formulaic) much easier and faster. So either find a book that shows you those tricks, or take a class, although if Saturday is your only chance to take it, maybe you could just look up the tricks on line.</p>
<p>I didn’t end up retaking the SATs so my scores stand at 2100. I visited and it confirmed that Carleton is my #1 choice and I will apply ED. I also had a chance to meet the swim coach and the team, and basically I was told that they didn’t have a great amount of pull in admissions but that they could “help a little” if I applied ED.</p>
<p>Yes, your grades from this semester do help show that you could handle the academics at Carleton. You should send them to the admissions office.</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I was accepted to Carleton and I only had a 3.39 GPA, with no AP classes (because my school didn’t offer them). Best of luck! Carleton is AWESOME!</p>
<p>It’s hard to predict, but I’d say that you definitely have a shot. Your ECs are pretty strong and if the swim coach says he’ll try to help, it will most likely make up for the SAT math score (bringing you to about even with other applicants who may have math scores closer to the middle of the pack). I’m so glad you liked your visit to Carleton, and I hope you’ll be joining us next fall! Best of luck.</p>
<p>Have you tried to get recruited for the swim team at Carleton. That will help you. </p>
<p>Also, I think you probably have a very good shot at admissions as you seem like a very interesting person. I hope you made that part really stand out in your application.</p>