Hi and thank you so much for all this great advice! It’s helped a lot. I had a question about an error on my common app. I volunteered at an organization over the summer and taught 28 students. This number was in all of my “What did you do over the summer” essays. Earlier that school year, I volunteered at the same organization and taught a different class of 16 students in one hour. This number is in one of my essays because I wanted to show how many kids I taught at a time. After the hour ended, the next class would shift in and the hour after that, the next class. This resulted in me teaching 38 students on any given day. The “38” is what I listed on my common app under the activities section. I have 3 different numbers (the 28, 16, and 38) referring to when I taught students at different times, but all listed under the same organization name. I didn’t clarify any of the numbers, i.e. what the 16 means. Is this a problem? I have a letter from the organization recognizing my work and verifying this. Should I send this in or clarify this to all of my colleges? Or do I not really need to worry about it? 
I made a mistake on the activities section of the CommonApp and the deadline the school already passed a couple days ago. I knew that I was supposed to order my activities in order of importance and didn’t know there were arrows to move each activity up and down the list. I did it manually be re-doing the entries and made a mistake on an activity: an intern opportunity I had, which is a pretty big activity that the admissions office would notice, so I don’t think the mistake will flow past them? The intern opportunity was THIS year but it is accidentally posted as LAST year, not to mention the hours/weeks is completely off. Should I send in a redone PDF of just the activities section (I feel like this would be the least hassle for them because all they would have to do then is just replace the page)? Or should I just email them explaining the mistake? These are reach colleges and I’m panicking because I don’t know what to do without jeapordizing my chances of admissions (my parents really want me to get into these schools).
@discombobulatez–at this point, the .pdf re-send is probably a decent idea. You can send a BRIEF cover note explaining the mistake.
@CaitfromCali-You definitely do NOT need to worry about this. 
on the common app, one of my activities was that I led worship at my current church. Since I couldn’t fit in my past church’s name, I just went with the current church’s name. However, I talked to the person that wrote me a supplemental recommendation letter and he told me how he talked about my leading worship at my past church with past church’s name, which means that the church name on the common app and the recommendation letter are different. Should I email the college and explain the situation? Or should I leave it be? I’m just worried if this will leave a negative impression of obsessing over a small detail or being careless, although I wasn’t. It’s for Harvard and other Ivys. If I email them, how should I go about? Very shortly?
@wowhopling --Let this go. The college folks aren’t really going to notice the difference between the names of the two churches. If you end up having an interview, you can explain the discrepancy in the interview, but no one is really going to care … or hold the inconsistency against you.
Thank you. I have another question.
So, I just submitted by applications to my schools and just found out that I had way too many hours on the activity section. A lot of my activities mainly happen on the break, and the hours I spend during the school year gets smaller.
These are my activities:
Class Officer 3hrs per week /36 weeks per year 10,11th grade
Singing 9hrs /46 weeks 9-12th grade
Math Group 4hrs / 36 weeks 10-12th grade
Robotics 20hrs / 46 weeks 11-12th grade
Community Service 8hrs / 52 weeks 9-12th grade
Microsoft 7hrs / 52weeks 12th grade
Tutoring 2 hrs/ 36weeks 11,12th grade
church volunteer 4hrs / 52weeks 9-12th
Other activity 3hrs / 20 weeks 11-12th grade
Average comes out to be like 60 hours per week… is it TOO MUCH? They are not lies, because for Robotics, I spend like 3 hours everyday during school year and like 6 hours per day during summer and winter break. Also, Community service, I do it like 2 hours every week and 12 hours per day for a month to like far countries. As I did the average, it came out to be like not, but I just didn’t know the hours would add up to that much.
I’m applying to some Ivys, will this tick off the Admission Officers? Should I email them?
Hi Sally,
I am new to CC, but I came across this discussion and found it very useful. However, I still have a few more concerns about my application that weren’t previously addressed and I was hoping you could help. I misunderstood the honors section of the common app. I was under the impression that it meant honors classes I took throughout high school (seeing that it was under the education section of the application). I did receive a student of the month award last year, but I reported it in the additional info box. I thought that’s where awards needed to be reported. It was an honest mistake. Also, when reporting my activities I didn’t put them in order of importance, instead I listed them from freshman year to senior year. Does that matter? Lastly, when it came to reporting hours/week and weeks/year for activities, was it okay if I roughly guessed the timeframe? For example, I attended yearbook and a literary group during my freshman year, but can’t remember exactly how long they exactly lasted for. Seeing that it was awhile ago. Will colleges penalize me for my best estimate? will colleges think I lied? Because, now that I look back at my applications I feel I may have overestimated the time. And when reporting my volunteer hours I put 10hrs/3weeks, I did the time, but it may not have been 10hrs each week. Instead it fluctuated throughout the year. I was already accepted into all of the schools I applied to. I have been reading other discussions on CC that state acceptance can be rescinded, the student could be expelled, or worse go to jail. Am I making myself paranoid? I understand you must be very busy, but I would greatly appreciate you getting back to me. Thank you!
@wowhopling --I personally HATE the way that the Common App requests activity hours. In order to average out the number of hours spent on an undertaking during the year, students often end up writing down figures that really don’t accurately convey the amount of effort expended or the WAY it is expended. For instance, my own son is a professional actor/model. Sometimes he’ll work all weekend on a film for a few straight weekends or maybe he’ll put in 12 hours straight in one day, but then there will be dry patches when he goes three months without even an audition. So when it came to describing his involvement on the Common App, he ended up writing 1 or 2 hours per week (I forget which) but that paints a very different picture than what his life his really like when he’s focused on a film for a short but intensive stint.
In the old days, when most Common Apps were paper, students could answer activities questions more open-endedly by saying something like, “1 to 12 hours week” or “30 hours week during the summer and 6 hours a week during the school year” which is a clearer way to explain activities or jobs than what the Common App now allows.
So I think that admission folks with half a brain will figure out that the limitations of the Common App allow only rough estimates of time commitments. Thus the bottom line is that you should let this go.
@Cloudygirl13 – As I just said above, don’t worry about estimates of your time commitment. Colleges will not think you lied … especially if you have already been accepted. Also don’t worry about misconstruing the “honors” section of your application. I’m sure you’re not the first to do this, and I bet that the college folks figured out what you meant.
Regarding the order of your activities … since you’ve already been accepted, there’s no correction needed here. For students who are still waiting for admission verdicts who put their activities out of order-of-importance, then an email or snail-mail correction can be sent, but only if the changes would be egregious.
Thank you so much for getting back to me so quickly. I would like to clarify a few more things if it’s not to much to ask. So when I put down my community service I put it for 10hrs/3wks, but it was over the course of the year not just the three weeks. Was that ok? I did the hours. Also when I was talking about time regarding my two freshman activities I meant weeks too. Was that also alright? Like I said it was awhile ago. Thank you again.
I would let this go. I’m not exactly sure why you put three weeks if you meant a year, but it doesn’t sound as if you were being intentionally deceitful nor would correcting the record make you seem more --or less–qualified to attend your target colleges.
Thank you again!
Thank you again, after looking over the list of hours I spent and what I put on common app I noticed I had just switched the two numbers on my applications. It should have read 3 hrs/10 wks. What I meant by year was I would volunteer once a month for ten months. I averaged the 1.5 hours each month with any additional time I spent each year. Sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused you
You’re welcome.
Thank you so much!! I really appreciate your help
Hi, I have 3 errors on my application. I put “was” instead of “were”, “reminisce” instead of “reminiscence” and the wrong year for my club post. (2010/11 instead of 2011/12)
Should I email colleges about these mistakes?
@kimberlim–the only one of these errors that is even remotely worth mentioning is the incorrect year on your club post and even this one is too minor to correct. Please leave this alone.
I do appreciate how stressful the admission process is and how anxious it can make students to realize, only with hindsight, that they made errors on their applications. But all of you have to step out of your own shoes at least briefly and imagine the harried admission officials who spend their nights curled up at home with a pile of application folders the size of a small refrigerator. They do not want to deal with emails about nit-picky corrections. Thus, trying to do the “right” thing by correcting minor mistakes may instead convey that you are insensitive or obsessive.
The general rule of thumb when deciding whether or not to send a correction is to ask yourself, “Do I think that providing new information will truly affect my admissions evaluation?”
If the answer is “No,” then don’t act. Keep in mind that a candidate who sends an update to correct spelling may be saying, “Yes, I really do know how to spell this word that I misspelled initially.” But he or she is also saying, “I didn’t proofread carefully before making the submission.” So you’re not really gaining a thing by calling attention to a small mistake, and you may even be hurting yourself more than helping.
Thank you for advice. I understand that my corrections wouldn’t truly affect my evaluation and by pointing them out, I would probably make matters worse. I guess I was just really nervous (like numerous other people in the same position).
Thank you again for the advice!
Hi,
I also didn’t realize that I had to list my activities in the order of importance… I just listed whatever came to my mind first. I don’t really mind the list but in the “describe an activity” supplements, I didn’t write about activities I listed first or second. Instead, I wrote about activities I listed 4th, 5th, etc. A lot of my other non-activity supplemental essays are related to the 5th activity also… and I put a club that I only participated in during my sophomore year in the middle of the list. Would admission officers find that odd?
The first two I listed are community service activities. I didn’t write about those activities at all in my supplemental essays. I just don’t want the admissions officers to think that I was trying to impress them by listing those first. I do value those activities though. Am I just over thinking this? Do you think I should correct the list? My extracurricular activities aren’t that impressive, so I’m wondering if the list even matters.
Thank you!
Hi again,
Sorry for the double post. I just went on common app and realized that I also entered in the wrong grade levels for some activities… I forgot to read the information on the sides so I messed up on filling out a lot of the activities. ahhh should I really email the colleges about this? or is the year not really that significant?
For a few of my colleges, I already submitted revisions though 
I don’t want to bother them again and portray a negative image for myself…