<p>Mood: Frantic. Pardon the scramble-y-ness of this post.</p>
<p>On my Common App, I screwed up years, hours, and leadership for two of my activities (I switched them). It is a terribly blatant screw-up too, so it's not something that could pass as feasible (I wrote that I was the founder of a 11 yr. old team at my score, w.t.f?)</p>
<p>This is what it is like:</p>
<p>Team 10 11 12 Founder/president
Club 12 Co-captain</p>
<p>A captaincy position just doesn't make sense for a club and Caltech knows my school's team has been around for over a decade...First, should I even attempt to call CommonApp and ask them to unlock? If I ask them to unlock it, will my Caltech app be pulled out of the early admissions pile? If I leave it as it is, will I be horribly penalized by Caltech adcoms? It's insanely obvious I switched those two activities -- one of my essays even talks about how I decided to start the club. Would this level of carelessness be enough to get me rejected? :(</p>
<p>Why not send an email to Caltech admissions or call them and say you've made a mistake on your app and want to make sure its corrected.<br>
Then contact CommonApp and see how to correct it (assuming you'll be using the CommonApp for regular decision apps.). </p>
<p>I can understand being frantic but I would imagine that the Caltech admissions staff will be understanding.</p>
<p>Heaven forbid, but it feels like there is no way I am getting into Caltech now. Ahh, my inability to fill out forms does not attest to my qualifications as a student! I swear. </p>
<p>Rlaqhdus, are you emailing Caltech and asking them to let you fix stuff?</p>
<p>Honestly? i think the adcoms realize that the whole app process is stressful and complicated. They are not looking for a class of future beauracrats who are great at filling out forms. Small, honestly problems are not going to get a second look. In fact, I am guessing that the people who actually make the decisions will not be aware of it.</p>
<p>I heard that fee based colllege counselors are advising putting a couple of small errors into the apps, because if they are too prefect it shows you used their services. I hope this is not true!</p>
<p>Are you really sure you even want to attend Caltech? </p>
<p>If something like correcting a trivial error on an application sends you into an uncontrollable panic attack, to the point that I can't even understand what most of your posts say because of how poorly they're written, do you really want or need the stress of Caltech for four years? </p>
<p>SilvaRua, I saw your post this morning before I went to school, and I spent the day thinking about it. I have an equally serious response:</p>
<p>Yes, I am sure I want to attend Caltech. There are very few things I would like more than admission and an opportunity to matriculate at this school. Indeed, this is the reason why I was frantic to begin with. By chance, if I were rejected due to such a trivial error on my CommonApp, I would not be able to bear it. I understand Caltech's admissions process is encompassing and if I were to be rejected, it would not be for this error, but why leave things to chance?</p>
<p>As for my rhetoric (or lack thereof)...I have no explanation. I think I'm just a poor writer, haha. I apologize.
Aside from that, I think I should thank you for an honest post...haha. You don't really encounter too many honest responses :)</p>
<p>And thanks to everyone who responded. Just for the record, I did e-mail the admissions office, and they were kind enough to change the mistake. Yay, I love Caltech.</p>