Correcting application errors after submission … or not

<p>Thanks so much Sally_Rubenstone; you make me feel better in this weekend!</p>

<p>You’re welcome! Happy to help take a little stress out of an absurdly stressful process.</p>

<p>I’ve just realized that I forgot to put my social security number on my common app (it’s required if you’re signing up for fafsa) - also, in my geography section, it says that I have lived in the United States my entire life (i’ve lived 1 year out of the country). However, it mentions in my essay how I spent a year outside of the country. Should I go about correcting this and if I should, who do I email?</p>

<p>I made about 5 typos on my first choice app. How would I fix that? </p>

<p>I submitted my Common Application to several schools and recently realized I reported one of my subject test scores incorrectly. I listed it as a 740 instead of a 760. I emailed the schools I applied to and explained the situation. Was this the right thing to do? Will it affect my chances at any of the schools I’ve applied to?</p>

<p>Hi Sally,</p>

<p>I submitted my application today but as I read over my essay again, I realized I mentioned the school colors (blue and grey) incorrectly as blue and white instead (but only once at the end of the essay). Should I call the admissions office and tell them that I acknowledged this mistake and want to fix it? If I call them, should I ask to submit a new essay or just explain my situation? I don’t want this to hurt my admissions chances because it is my top school. </p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>I accidentally put the wrong income on my fee waiver. I didn’t realize it until after. It was an honest mistake. I wouldn’t intentionally ruin my chance of acceptance for a 55$ application fee waiver. It has been bothering me so much. I messed up big time. I feel like I should call to see if they could fix it for me? But I don’t know if it is too late? And I may have ruined my chances of getting into a decent university. Please answer. Can it be fixed if I call? </p>

<p>@tinyone—SS numbers are important, so email the admission office(s) to add yours, if you’re not queasy about putting this information in an email (some folks are). Since you’re writing anyway, you can also correct your year-abroad error (which wouldn’t be worth doing if you didn’t have another more critical mistake to remedy).</p>

<p>@annakc96-Don’t bother admission officials about this unless one of your typos was truly egregious … e.g., you meant to type, “My main goal now is to get healthy,” but instead you wrote, “My main goal now is to get Wealthy.” Otherwise, forget about the mistakes you made already, but do change them if they’re on the Common App or any other application form you’ll use again. And, before submitting additional applications, ask someone with a fresh pair of eyes to go over everything to search for more typos. It can be hard to edit your own work.</p>

<p>@mkat26—If you’d written this BEFORE you sent the correction, I would have told you to let it go. Colleges use official score reports, not yours. But it’s fine that you sent the correction. No big deal either way.</p>

<p>@JalapenoGreens—This mistake isn’t a big deal either but I can see where it’s going to bug you. So, if it’s keeping you up at night, try a “cute” correction like this: Send the college a picture of yourself wearing the school colors (sweatshirt, t-shirt, etc.) and then add a funny (well, sort of) caption. EXAMPLE: “Duh! I know that the [name of university] colors are Blue & Gray (and not Blue & White, as I wrote in my essay). Too much Clorox in my laundry?” If you don’t have the appropriate sweatshirt or t-shirt handy, I bet you can find a photo of a dog decked out in the college colors and use that instead. For better or worse, we live in an era where the Internet is full of pictures of pets in college swag.</p>

<p>@heyjazz—Don’t worry. This won’t hurt you at all. Just email your college(s) with a brief correction and apology. Again, no biggie.</p>

<p>@Sally_Rubenstone I mentioned that I did a school activity 40 weeks a year, but I forgot to take into account the march break and winter break, so it should be like 35-37 is this minor?</p>

<p>@ manas1997: Yes, that is EXTREMELY minor … a non-issue.</p>

<p>@Sally_Rubenstone ty was getting nervous for a bit.</p>

<p>You’re welcome. Application errors are a greater source of student terror than they should be. If I had to quantify all of , this, I’d estimate that about 89% of the time the mistakes are minor enough to ignore, and about 9% of time they need to be corrected (e.g., when a financial aid applicant omits a Social Security Number) and, the other 2% of the time, the mistakes may be problematic because they’re beyond correcting . But, if you’re in that big 89%, correcting your errors could possibly work against you,at least in a small way. For instance, if manas1997 had written to admission offices to say, “My 40 weeks/year may be more like 35-37 due to vacations,” the admission folks might wonder, “Just how obsessive is this kid and is this someone I’d want to room with?” So a word to the wise: Go easy on sending corrections unless the mistakes are truly significant.</p>

<p>I just realized I made a mistake on the common app, and I already submitted it to one school. For my dad’s education information, I put “no degree” because I was going to ask him about it to make sure I didn’t put the wrong degree down, but because the common app marked that section as finished, I forgot about it and didn’t change it. Should I email the admissions office about it? I’m not sure what to do. </p>

<p>@michelle21-This mistake does warrant a brief email to the admission office. Your omission may have some effect on how your application is viewed, especially if your mother did not earn a Bachelor’s degree. Don’t worry … the oversight is not a big deal, but a short note to correct it is appropriate. But, before sending your note, go over your application carefully to be certain that you don’t need to make any other corrections. You definitely want to avoid sending more than one error-corrections message. And, as long as you’re writing, if you have any good news to report (e.g., you just took a new job, were elected to a club office, won the regional cross-country championships, got great grades on your first-quarter report card) you can toss this into your note as well. </p>

<p>@Sally_Rubenstone I just emailed the admissions office correcting my oversight. My mother didn’t earn a Bachelor’s degree, and I wouldn’t want my accidental omission to look like a blatant lie. Thank you for your reply and advice! </p>

<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am EXTREMELY nervous now because as I was looking over my activities section of my common app, I realized that I misspelled “division” as “devision.” TWICE!!! Is this minor? I applied Early Decision to Cornell University, so I am very worried this might be a problem. </p>

<p>@123211 - Is English your first language? (I’m not being snide. Colleges give a lot of spelling-error wiggle room to non-native speakers).</p>

<p>This error isn’t a BIG deal and not worth a special corrections letter. BUT … can you think of anything ELSE you want to tell Cornell in the next couple weeks? If you have any good-news updates (e.g., a top-notch report card that just came out this week) you can send an update email that features the news and then includes a brief “Oops … I also need to correct a spelling goof in my application …”</p>

<p>But don’t send an email JUST to amend this mistake. </p>

<p>Thank you so much!! @Sally_Rubenstone </p>

<p>And yes, English is my first language. </p>

<p>You can either let it go anyway OR come up with a couple legit “updates” to send to your regional rep in an email. Then you can toss in a p.s. at the end of the email along the lines of this:</p>

<p>I learned to do division when I was only 6, but I guess I never learned how to spell it until this week! Much to my horror, when I proof-read my Cornell application after sending it (not such a great plan!), I realized I’d written “devision” when I meant “division.” I hope that this small error doesn’t keep me out of Cornell and–if it doesn’t–I promise I’ll do my future proofing BEFORE I submit my work.</p>