Carleton College requires the following documents in order to complete an application for admission:

First-Year Students

• Common Application with Essay
• Carleton Supplement (available on the Common Application site)
• Secondary School Report with High School Counselor Recommendation
• Transcript (Junior year, first semester of Senior year, and Final High School)
• Two teacher recommendations (We recommend using teachers you have had in the past two years)
• Test Scores
  • SAT or ACT with writing
  • TOEFL or IELTS for students whose primary language of instruction has not been English (SAT and ACT may only be waived if these tests are not offered in the student's country)
  • SAT IIs are optional

Transfer Students

• Common Application with Essay explaining why you want to transfer to Carleton
• Carleton Supplement (available on the Common Application site)
• Dean's Evaluation
•  Transcript (Final High School, College)
• Two College Instructor Evaluations
• Test Scores
  • SAT or ACT with writing
  • TOEFL or IELTS for students whose primary language of instruction has not been English  (SAT and ACT may only be waived if these tests are not offered in the student's country)
  • SAT IIs are optional

If you want to submit supplemental art materials (first-year and transfer)

Carleton allows for the submission of arts supplements in music, theater, dance, the visual arts, and film.  Please note that students are able to participate in and/or major in the arts at Carleton without having submitted a supplement. 

For music, theater, dance, and film, please follow the instructions provided on the Common Application Arts Supplement form.

For the visual arts, follow the Common Application instructions, but please also observe our studio art department's established formatting guidelines:

• All images must be on a CD (in a paper sleeve; no jewel cases)
• Submit up to, but no more than, 20 images
• Individual images should be no larger than 1920 x 1920 pixels
• All images should be saved as JPEG files and must not exceed 1.8MB
• CDs should contain individual JPEG files--no video compilations, PowerPoint slides, webpages or ZIP files
• Videos should be no more than 3-5 minutes long 
• Videos should be saved as .mov or .avi files