Hi! So it’s super late in the application process, and the only school I’m waiting to hear from is Vanderbilt. Long story short, admissions come out in a week and I just noticed a potentially major error on my Common App. I have on there that I am a National Merit Scholar. I am actually only a National Merit Commended Scholar. I did not compete for a scholarship. I’m not sure how much they look at National Merit recognition anyway, but I know for some schools it carries a huge weight.
I have emailed my admissions counselor, mainly because I want them to review my application accurately so the process is fair to everyone and my acceptance/rejection is based on true information.
I don’t know if they are able to check information like that. I’m worried a) I will get accepted based on faulty information (which will make me feel guilty. I already do) or b) they will have already checked, found out I wasn’t and deemed me a liar, and proceeded to throw out my application.
Letters and email notifications get sent next week for regular decision.
Update: I am currently freaking out about my decision to email my admissions counselor. Is this a big enough mistake for them to rescind my acceptance if I was in fact accepted? It was an honest mistake. I remember specifically typing in those parts of my application with my school’s college counselor and double checking everything. I knew being a National Merit Commended Scholar was an achievement, but I really wasn’t familiar with the significance of it to colleges at the time. I really wasn’t even clear on the significance of the different terminology (Commended, Semi Finalist, etc.), other than just knowing I didn’t advance further. (You’d think I’d know these things, but it isn’t really talked about much at my school and my parents don’t know much about NMS either.) I’m just terrified they’re gonna think I intentionally lied. I worked so hard on my app and now I feel like I’ve blown it.
@skycolors527 I don’t think you should worry about this. A lot of high schools refer to any student recognized in any way by the National Merit program as a “National Merit Scholar”. In reality, the actual National Merit Scholars for a given high school graduating class are not chosen from among the finalists until the spring of senior year so no applicant could claim with certainty to be one. Vanderbilt has your other test scores and that’s what they’ll focus on, along with the other elements of your application. (FYI, I am the mom of two kids, one a Vandy freshman and the other a National Merit finalist now a junior at a public university.)
That was such a relief to read. I have had so much anxiety over this because decisions are about to be sent out, so it’s felt like the end of the world with nothing I could do. My email was really calm and collected, showing that I care but not acting like it was a catastrophe. Hopefully they will view it as a small error and not like I was trying to pull something over on them to get an unfair advantage. I did not know that scholarship winners were not selected until the spring of their senior year, either, so I hope when they reviewed my application they already understood what I actually meant. Thank you for your insight! It was very helpful 
skycolors527, be at peace. the admissions staff is not out to assume negative things about students, and you should release this worry. I am sure it was AOK to send in that correction to an honest error.
@faline2 thank you so much! The admissions counselor replied, thanking me and saying they’ll keep that in mind. I’m hoping that was a polite way of saying it really doesn’t matter… lol
Bringing this back. I got accepted into UVA and I have no clue what their policy is about this. It was an honest mistake with confusion about my recognition, and I am afraid I will get punished for it. But I feel the need to notify them of this??? Even though i don’t even HAVE to?
Vandy does give money for kids making the NMF so they are going to find out anyway. For NMF, you put them as the designated schools so that you can get money every year while at Vandy.
The schools probably would know that you are not National Merit Scholar, I believe D didn’t find out that she was until late March or early April. I still would notify the school, just to demonstrate that you are someone who holds yourself to a higher standard.