How to Write the Carleton College Essays 2024-2025
Carleton College has one required essay and one optional essay. The first essay asks you to discuss someone who has impacted you. While normally we would encourage you to also respond to the optional second prompt, this is the kind of “additional information” question that is truly optional, so only answer if there is truly something that you don’t feel is captured anywhere else in your application.
Carleton is one of the most selective liberal arts colleges out there, so strong essays are key to set yourself apart in a talented applicant pool. Read on for our expert tips and tricks!
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Carleton College Supplemental Essay Prompts
Prompt 1 (required): Think about someone you connect with who’s different from you. What do you find most meaningful about your interactions with them? (100-300 words)
Prompt 2 (optional): Anything missing? Do you want to share more with us? If so, use this space to fill any gaps you think would assist us in reviewing your application. (250 words)
Carleton admission staff provide helpful essay tips on their admissions website. This is great advice for writing college essays overall. They encourage students to see the essay as an opportunity to share information that won’t be found elsewhere in your application and to show who you are beyond test scores and GPAs.
- Be genuine. Write what you want to say, not what you think they want to hear.
- Answer the question.
- It is an essay, so remember to come up with a thesis, an introduction, body, and ending.
- Don’t set out to write the perfect admission essay. Write the best essay for you.
- Proofread. Errors and misspellings are distracting. Take the time to create a clean, error-free essay.
Residential liberal arts colleges like Carleton know that students have a better experience and greater success when they feel that they belong at their school. This is especially true for smaller colleges where students and faculty know each other by name. These prompts give admission staff an opportunity to get to know you as a person and how the Carleton community might be a good fit for you.
All of these options will require some introspection on your part. You may even surprise yourself as you consider these prompts.
Prompt 1 (required)
Think about someone you connect with who’s different from you. What do you find most meaningful about your interactions with them? (100-300 words)
Understanding the Prompt
Carleton is known to value diversity, so they are interested in understanding how meaningful connections with people who are different from you have shaped your perspective.
Questions to Help With Brainstorming
- Who is someone in your life that has a different background, belief system, or personality from yours?
- How did you first meet or get to know this person?
- What are some key differences between you and this person? How do those differences impact your relationship?
- What have you learned from this person that you might not have learned from someone more similar to you?
- How has your relationship with this person influenced your views, values, or behaviors?
- What specific moments or interactions with this person stand out to you as particularly meaningful?
- How do you think your relationship with this person will continue to impact you in the future?
What Makes a Good Response
- Specificity: Use vivid, specific examples to show, rather than tell, what you find meaningful about your interactions.
- Personal Growth: Highlight how this relationship has contributed to your personal growth or changed your perspective. Carleton wants to see that you are open to learning from those who are different from you, not just that you interact passively with them.
- Authenticity: Be honest and reflective. Avoid writing what you think admissions officers want to hear, and instead focus on the genuine impact this person has had on your life.
- Balanced Focus: While it’s important to discuss the differences between you and the other person, the focus should remain on how those differences contribute to a meaningful connection, rather than just listing them.
Hypothetical Student Examples
- Ethan, a shy introvert: Ethan was initially put off by his outgoing and extroverted theater camp roommate, Liam. Over time, Liam’s infectious enthusiasm and willingness to push boundaries helped Ethan step out of his comfort zone. Ethan might describe a specific moment when Liam encouraged him to audition for a bigger role in a play than he normally would have, which reignited his passion for theater and gave him more confidence in social situations overall.
- Sarah, a liberal activist: Sarah grew up in a politically progressive household but formed an unexpected friendship with her conservative neighbor, Mr. Johnson, an elderly veteran. She might write about how their respectful debates over tea taught her to appreciate the complexity of his views and the importance of dialogue, even when they don’t agree.
- Maria, a first-generation immigrant: Maria befriended Emily, a wealthy classmate from a privileged background. Initially, Maria felt out of place among Emily’s affluent friends, but over time, they bonded over a shared love of animals. Maria might reflect on how Emily’s openness and curiosity about Maria’s cultural heritage allowed them to build a deep friendship that transcended socioeconomic differences.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Being vague or general: Avoid broad statements like “I learned a lot from them.” Instead, say what specifically you learned, and give detailed descriptions of the concrete moments when you learned those lessons.
- Making the essay about differences instead of connections: Your framing should be how the differences enrich your friendship–if you focus too much on the differences themselves, your essay could come across as antagonistic.
- Turning the essay into a critique: Similarly, this essay is about appreciating someone different from you, not about highlighting their flaws or the challenges of your relationship.
- Writing a resume-like summary: Don’t treat this essay as a way to list all the ways you’ve interacted with diverse people. Focus on one meaningful relationship and explore it deeply.
Good and Bad Examples
Good Example
“My friendship with Olivia, a girl I met during a summer coding camp, has been one of the most eye-opening relationships I’ve had. Olivia was born deaf, and though I initially thought our communication would be challenging, it quickly became clear that the richness her perspective added was worth navigating any logistical hurdle.
During group projects, Olivia would always suggest incredibly creative ways to visualize coding problems—solutions that I never would have considered. One time, when we were struggling to debug a tricky program, she suggested thinking of the code in terms of visual patterns rather than lines of text. That moment completely changed the way I approach coding.
Over time, I’ve realized that her deafness isn’t a barrier at all, but a unique strength that adds incredible value to any team. Our friendship has taught me that sometimes, a major difference between me and someone else is simply a chance to broaden my mind beyond what I originally thought was possible.”
Why this works: This example is personal, specific, and highlights a clear interaction (debugging session at coding camp) that shows how the relationship has affected the writer’s thinking. The essay focuses on the student’s growth and learning while also showing admiration for their friend’s strengths. Finally, the vivid storytelling and details make the essay unique and memorable.
Bad Example
“I have a friend who is from a very different background than me. He is from Pakistan, and I’m from the U.S., so we grew up with very different cultures. He practices Islam, and I don’t follow any religion, but we still get along well. I’ve learned that even though we come from different places, we are all human and can still be friends. It’s made me more open to meeting people from different cultures in the future.”
Why this doesn’t work: This response is too vague. There are no specific examples of the moments the student has shared with their friend, and as a result the lesson learned feels cliché. There’s little depth or personal reflection, so the essay doesn’t do much to show us what distinguishes this student from any other Carleton applicant.
Prompt 2 (optional)
Anything missing? Do you want to share more with us? If so, use this space to fill any gaps you think would assist us in reviewing your application. (250 words.)
Usually, at a school as selective as Carleton, you want to take advantage of any and all opportunities to share your personality. This prompt, though, is an example of one that’s truly optional. If you feel that the rest of your application already fully captures who you are, there’s no need to force anything here.
However, if you feel as though there is something about your identity or about why you want to go to Carleton that is important to your application and hasn’t yet been addressed, don’t hesitate to include it here. Here are some examples of details you may wish to write about here:
- Unusual circumstances or hardships (financial hardships, first-generation status, illness, tragedy, etc.)
- Family responsibilities that may have prevented students from taking traditional extracurriculars
- Unique extracurricular that wasn’t written about in another part of the application outside of the Activities section
- Describing your identity in the context of race, gender, or sexuality
This prompt is going to be on an extremely case-by-case basis, so do what feels right for you and remember that you don’t have to embellish anything about yourself or your life in an attempt to make it sound more interesting to an admissions reader. They really just want to get to know you as your authentic self, so if you do choose to answer this prompt, make sure that you’re doing it in a manner that is genuine and honest.
Also, even though this prompt has a 250-word limit, feel free to only write a few short sentences if that feels more appropriate to you. Again, this prompt is truly optional, so unlike with other essays, don’t feel like you have to use up every last bit of space.
How to Get Your Carleton Essays Edited for Free
Do you want feedback on your Carleton College essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool, where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.
Need feedback faster? Get a free, nearly-instantaneous essay review from Sage, our AI tutor and advisor. Sage will rate your essay, give you suggestions for improvement, and summarize what admissions officers would take away from your writing. Use these tools to improve your chances of acceptance to your dream school!
