<p>Hey, I'm trying to decide whether to apply to Carleton ED II or just RD. If you think ED II would be a deciding factor in my admission, please tell me. </p>
<p>Here's some quick info about me:</p>
<p>white male from washington state high school of national acclaim</p>
<p>GPA: 3.94 (unweighted)
Class Rank: 21 out of 30 (school doesn't weight)
SAT I: 1470 (750 V, 720 M)
SAT II: Writing--710 Ecological Biology--680 Math IC--620
7 AP scores so far, 4 5's and 3 4's
Taking 3 AP's this year
AP scholar with distinction
National Merit Semifinalist
Extracurriculars
-Varsity Tennis
-Lots of non-school tennis
-school newspaper
-peer-tutor-young democrats club
-work at grocery store
-Achievement award from Lion's Club</p>
<p>Interested in majoring in statistics, focus on biostatistics, going into epidemiology.</p>
<p>Help me out!</p>
<p>haha that should be class rank 21/308</p>
<p>I'm currently a student at Carleton. I think you should go for RD because with those stats I'd say you're in.</p>
<p>Are you sure you want to go to Carleton if you want to major in stats or biostats or the like? I mean, I'm probably the last person to discourage people to apply to Carleton around, but we don't really <em>have</em> those programs. There are only a few stats courses in the math department. I see one specific bioinformatics course in the biology department. You wouldn't get to study those subjects too much at the undergrad level here at least, although I have no idea if that would be the case elsewhere. That said, there are lots of special areas of interest in biology and it would be absurd if everyone with a special interest avoided coming to Carleton because of that, and it would be quite feasible for you to do in-depth study on that topic as the comprehensive project or as other research and there certainly are graduated seniors who have already done this, I'm sure.</p>
<p>However, just based on that you might want to leave your options open in case you want to do hardcore biostats courses while at the undergrad level, I would apply to Carleton RD and not ED II. More effort and waiting, yes, but I think course availability might be something you'll want to think about and perhaps you'll want to also look at larger universities (ain't nothing wrong with the UW...if you can get into any classes as an underclassman). </p>
<p>Your chances RD are quite good. I've never known Carleton to reject a NM semifinalist...not that it hasn't happened, I'm sure in my limited experience, but there are an awful lot of us here and the college loves to cite those stats. Besides that, you have good scores and good grades and I would guess that you are in. It's not a certainty--one of the covaledictorians of my high school was waitlisted, for example, with good extracurriculars and pretty good test scores--but if you demonstate interest in Carleton they will be hard-pressed to reject you.</p>
<p>Oh, and you probably went to my high school based on that ranked class size and other information. If not Bainbridge, then I would guess Mercer or Newport? We've got kids here from all those rich Seattley high schools.</p>
<p>Hey Use a Toothbrush,
Thanks for the great response! It's good to know about the biostats program, although actually that's just a recent interest of mine, cause I thought it sounded cool. English would probably be my other main choice of major, so the small liberal arts college is definitely appealing to me. Oh, and I'm at Bellevue High, which is most definitely a rich Seattley high school haha. Also, can you tell me where else you applied and where you got in? I'd like to know more about how Carleton matches up to other places.</p>
<p>Oh, well if you're considering being an English major, you're in good company at Carleton. :)</p>
<p>Last year when I was applying to colleges Carleton was my top choice but I chose to stick it out RD because I wanted to have the freedom to change my mind at the last minute and to compare financial aid packages. I applied to (in alphabetical order) Carleton, Harvey Mudd, Macalester, MIT, Stanford, University of Washington, and Whitman. I was accepted at all those schools and very nearly went to Mudd after being tempted by a super selective half tuition scholarship. However, I have no regrets about choosing Carleton over any of those other places and I really love this school. I'm a probable math or physics major here. I had a 4.0 GPA in high school (1 of 300something students? There was like an 8 way tie for valedictorian) and a 1560 SAT, 800s on the SAT IIs I took, but not really any extracurriculars except math competitions, cross-country running, and my job. I know there's a prstats.com page on me in the 2008 section under this name if you care to dig. If you have any other questions about Carleton, I can try to answer them for you.</p>
<p>Wow, your stats sure make me look like ****. You turned down Stanford? Is Carleton really that good? It's like my 4th choice behind Brown, Amherst, Williams.</p>
<p>Well, as I said before, Carleton was my first choice. I by far prefer the smaller LAC atmosphere to the university setting, and I also am not that big a fan of California weather. It wasn't hard for me to turn down Stanford. I would never say that Carleton is better than Stanford or MIT or what not or make that conclusion based on my decisions, but I feel confident that I'm enjoying myself much more here than I would be at those other schools. I love the other students here, I love the professors, and I love living there. If Carleton isn't your first choice, then I certainly wouldn't apply to it ED II, to answer your question conclusively.</p>