<p>Well, Carleton also says on their web site that:</p>
<p>“interviews are informational, not evaluative.” Clearly rating students on an average, good or superb basis is evaluative. The point is not to suggest that the good people of Carleton Admissions are involved in things they don’t mean, it’s merely to suggest that a bit of editing might be in order. </p>
<p>Certainly ALL schools and students should be interested in fit, so the ‘level of interest’ prompt is not about fit. Fit requires two parties/entities, interest only one. </p>
<p>Also, I notice that other schools (such as Amherst and Williams) also checked that they do not consider “level of interest.” Swarthmore does consider it. My guess is that there isn’t a single thing that Swarthmore Admissions is doing around “interest” in comparison to the other schools other than slicing through the nonsense.</p>
<p>After all, if some college president were asked the question: are you interested in college applicants that are greatly interested in your college, what is he going to say? No?</p>
<p>…a very late response on need based aid vs merit aid…kinda back to a discussion I had in the #15 to #20 range of this thread. It still kinda bugs me.</p>
<p>Carleton does give significant Merit aid and does give scholarships that are kinda in the fuzzy area between merit aid and need based aid. A link to some these scholarships are below from the Carleton web site. </p>
<p>While these are for international students, they aren’t really need based…or are sort of in-between. It shows that Carleton is willing to give merit based scholarships. There may be significant merit based scholarships for Americans at Carleton. I’m not sure.</p>
<p>Ctyankee et al: Use a search engine to find Carleton College’s Common Data Set. Click on the 2008-09 data, and scroll to page 8. There you will find a chart listing factors considered in admissions decisions. Interviews are considered, an applicant’s level of interest is not. Hopefully this puts a period on this discussion. I’m not sure why there is a contradiction in the website (post 41 by Ctyankee) and the common data set, but my D’s experience and the stories I’ve heard from others strongly suggests that interviews can help applicants. How much help, I simply don’t know. </p>
<p>Some other thoughts. Perusing the chart on page 8 of the Carleton Common Data Set reveals that there are only three aspects of an applicant’s file that are very important, and all are related to academic performance in high school: class rank, rigor of high school curriculum, and GPA. There have been many threads about college comparisons, and the chart being referenced here can be found for all colleges. There are significant differences between and among colleges that stand out. For instance, at Carleton, standardized test scores, character and personal qualities, and volunteer work are important, and an interview is considered. At Grinnell, standardized test scores are very important, an interview is important, character and personal qualities and volunteer work are considered. I’m not sure what to make of all this, but I think it is fair to write that all college admissions processes are not the same, and at Carleton there is no substitute for a strong high school academic record.</p>
<p>As a final observation, my youngest D, who is currently engaged in a college search, was informed by an admissions officer at an LAC (not Carleton) that letters of gratitude for those conducting admissions interviews were placed in an applicant’s file and were considered (presumably as a positive reflecting character) when acceptance decisions were being made. Interesting to think about …</p>
<p>Vossron covered what is in Carleton’s Common Data Set, that fact has not been in dispute. The musings have been on how in the world Carleton can claim not to consider the interest level of the applicant when Carleton’s supplement asks the ‘Why Carleton’ question etc.</p>
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<p>Again, small potatoes to be sure, but, presumably that (unknown) college indicates that alumni interviews receive the same weight as an on-campus interview. Realistically, that may not truly be correct as Alumni interviewer thank you notes are not in a kid’s file when the hard decisions are made - when memories of one candidate versus another fade - leaving one thing in a file that might be a decision breaker between candidates. </p>
<p>Naturally, that school also checked that a candidate’s interest level is not factored into decisions … right? :)</p>
<p>I believe it is very tough to separate an applicants interview performance from the applicant’s level of interest. Honestly, if you are in an interview with a student and the student does not ask a single question about Carleton, you are going to think something is wrong with this student and his/her motivations for applying to Carleton. I don’t think it is realistic for Carleton to say an interview is considered but not the student’s level of interest.</p>
<p>What I find harder to reconcile is that on the one hand the CDS says an interview is considered, and on the other hand Carleton’s website says the interview is purely informational and not evaluative, and that not having an interview is not a strike against you.</p>
<p>Not that this issue isn’t important, but I want to make sure that applicants aren’t made unnecessarily anxious about their interviews. Most likely, two different people in the admissions office filled out the info for the website and common data set–or the website and the CDS are just two different animals. The CDS, to my knowledge, doesn’t leave room for explanation (also, when I was applying, I had no idea where to even find the CDS), but Carleton admissions works hard to make sure that their website has a friendly and reassuring tone. Two more things, from a former applicant/current student’s perspective:</p>
<p>1) At my interview (not with an admissions officer but with a local alumna, a law student in my city), things were MUCH more casual than they were with a few of my other interviews. There were no trick questions–actually, I think the interviewer had made up her own list of questions and wasn’t reading from a piece of paper. She couldn’t have been nicer (“What are three words that describe you?–No, never mind, that’s always so awkward”). If you look on some of the interview threads on CC, this has been a pretty consistent experience for Carleton applicants. </p>
<p>When it was over, she mentioned that she had a form to fill out, and that she’d try to make me “look good.” </p>
<p>Conclusion: Interviews, while low-key and non-stressful, do result in some kind of addition to your admissions file. </p>
<p>Discovery: My academic adviser has my admissions file–perhaps I can sneak a peek at my interview form when I go in!</p>
<p>2) Writing a thank-you note is a nice and appreciative gesture. It should be done whether you anticipate brownie points or not.</p>
<p>as a current student, jack63 is wrong. there are a fair amount of students who are rich, there are a fair amount of students who are on serious financial aid, and there are a fair amount of students who have outside merit scholarships as well.</p>
<p>Yes “outside” merit scholarships I’m sure (it is Carleton we’re talking about after all), but I think we’re talking about merit scholarships through the school itself.</p>
<p>I think that by “level of interest” Carleton isn’t referring to how much you say you want to attend but to things like visiting or actually asking for an interview. My son didn’t visit before he was accepted nor did he even request an interview (I, personally, thought that was a mistake on his part–but I was wrong). In his case, at least, there wasn’t a huge amount of “demonstrated interest,” (aka, “showing the love”), although I know his “Why Carleton” answer was well thought-out and considered.</p>
<p>What am I wrong about? … Merit aid or the interview process…I’m sure there is lots of other things I’m wrong about too :).</p>
<p>They give international students merit aid. They mention limited merit aid for American students. All I’m saying is I wouldn’t put it by them to offer American students Merit aid that isn’t really mentioned anywhere. By the way, Carleton can be negotiated with when it comes to financial aid…at least when I was a student. This negotiation is always on the fuzzy line between merit and and financial aid.</p>
<p>Jack, they say “limited merit aid” for domestic students for the same reason we’ve already discussed: They recognize National Merit Finalists for 2,000 dollars per year (8,000 over 4). There are also a couple of scholarships provided by alumni that are available ONLY to students applying from a particular high school (one example is the Donald Scholarship which is only available to students at two New Orleans schools). But I guarantee there are no other forms of merit aid for domestic incoming students. It is correct you can appeal your package if you feel your demonstrated need is met, but it will not help your position in such negotiations to mention any of your “merit.” There are also a handful of scholarships that are given out to students who are already enrolled at Carleton (some small music scholarships and such that are given to students for their sophomore, junior, or senior year), but those scholarships are only available to students already attending Carleton (not applicants). </p>
<p>That is it. I promise there is no secret merit budget that Admissions can draw from, and it seems like sort of a paranoid allegation.</p>
<p>I believe limner was right on the “showing interest” question. I interviewed when I was visiting, and the way my (also extremely casual) interviewer explained it was that if you do an interview, it’s pretty much just informational. However, if you can’t afford to fly to MN for an interview or visit or whatever, it doesn’t count against you as “lack of demonstrated interest.” Of course you have to demonstrate interest in writing your apps.</p>