Carleton College supplemental essays
Yes, for some applicants. Every Carleton College supplement in 2026-27 depends on the college or program you apply to. Common App. Personal statement required (250-650 words).
Early Decision closes November 15, 2026, Early Decision II closes January 15, 2027 and Regular Decision closes January 15, 2027. Every Carleton College prompt is printed on this page in full, with its word limit and who has to answer it, checked against the college’s own admissions page.
Deadlines
| Round | Date |
|---|---|
| Early Decision | November 15, 2026 |
| Early Decision II | January 15, 2027 |
| Regular Decision | January 15, 2027 |
Checked against www.admissions.carleton.edu/register/supplement. Confirm on the college’s own page before you submit.
The essays, 2026-27
Reported, not confirmed
Carleton is widely reported to ask a Carleton-specific question (about 300 words) through the Common App member questions.
Carleton’s own supplement form shows only an optional "anything missing?" box, and its site could not be read further. We could not confirm or rule out the reported prompt, so check the Common App.
Your Carleton College checklist
No supplement every applicant writes: which ones you write depends on your college or program. The first deadline, Early Decision, is November 15, 2026.
- Common App personal statementRequired250-650 words
- One program-specific promptOnly if you apply to the college or program it names. All printed in full above.
It saves these rows to your essay manager, where each one carries a status you set yourself and the prompt stays attached to it. Add your other schools and they land on the same page, in deadline order. Nothing written yet? The topic quiz is free as well.
Free: this page, the checklist, the essay manager and the topic quiz. Paid: a written review of a finished draft, $49 an essay.
Paste your essay for a free read
Have it in a document? or drop one here (Word, PDF, or Text).
Not sure what a review is? What an AI college essay review can and cannot do, and what a college essay grader leaves out. What the read checks against Carleton College’s own prompts is on the Carleton College essay review page.
Getting into Carleton College
Carleton College admits 20.4% of applicants. The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 1450-1560 on the SAT and 32-34 on the ACT.
About 1 in 5 applicants are admitted, at a college of 2,086 undergraduates.
| Enrolled students | 25th | Median | 75th |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT total | 1450 | 1515 | 1560 |
| SAT reading and writing | 720 | 745 | 770 |
| SAT math | 730 | 770 | 790 |
| ACT composite | 32 | 34 | 34 |
What SAT score do you need for Carleton College?
A 1560 puts you in the top quarter of the students who enrolled, a 1515 at their midpoint, and a 1450 at the bottom quarter, meaning one in four enrolled students scored below it. The same three points on the ACT are 32, 34 and 34. A quarter of an enrolled class scoring under the 25th percentile is not a rounding error, so a score below the range is a reason to strengthen the rest of the application rather than a reason not to apply.
US Department of Education, College Scorecard (2026-09-17). Percentiles describe students who enrolled, not everyone admitted. SAT totals are the reading and math bands added together, which is how every source in this market reports them and is an approximation of about 10 to 20 points, because the two sections are correlated.
- What SAT score do you need for Carleton College?
- Carleton College sets no minimum. Among students who enrolled, the middle 50% scored 1450-1560 on the SAT: a 1450 sits at the 25th percentile, 1515 at the median and 1560 at the 75th. A score at or above 1560 is a clear strength in the application; below 1450 it is the part of the file the rest has to make up for. These are the figures Carleton College reports to the US Department of Education, released in the College Scorecard of 2026-09-17.
- What ACT score do you need for Carleton College?
- The middle 50% of enrolled students scored 32-34 on the ACT, with a composite of 34 at the median. There is no cutoff: a quarter of the enrolled class scored below 32. Reported by Carleton College to the US Department of Education, College Scorecard release of 2026-09-17.
- What GPA do you need for Carleton College?
- The honest answer is that the federal data behind this page does not contain one. Colleges report their admit rate and their enrolled students' test scores to the Department of Education; they do not report a GPA distribution, so any site quoting an exact average GPA for Carleton College is either reading that college's own Common Data Set or estimating. What the reported data does say is that Carleton College admits 20.4% of applicants, and the more selective a college is, the closer to the top of the class its admitted students sit and the more the strength of your course load counts alongside the number itself.
- How hard is it to get into Carleton College?
- Carleton College admits 20.4% of the people who apply, which is about 1 in 5 applicants. Numbers inside the reported range put you in a real position here, and the application itself decides the rest.
What Carleton College costs after grant aid, by family income, from the same federal data.
Sort your whole college list into reaches, targets and likelies, or find colleges that fit your GPA and test scores. Both are free and neither needs an account.
Carleton College essay questions, answered
- Does Carleton College have supplemental essays?
- Yes, for some applicants. Every Carleton College supplement in 2026-27 depends on the college or program you apply to. Every prompt is printed in full on this page.
- How many essays do you write for Carleton College in 2026-27?
- It depends on the college or program you apply to. Carleton College sets no supplement every applicant writes in 2026-27; the prompts on this page name who each one is for.
Schools with similar admit rates
Carleton College admits 20.4% of applicants. The colleges either side of it in our set by admit rate, most selective first, each with its own prompts and deadlines: Colorado College (18.5%), Vassar College (18.6%), University of Miami (18.9%), Smith College (21.0%), Skidmore College (21.1%), Wake Forest University (21.7%).