I accidentally put the wrong SSN on my Common App, making a huge mistake. First of all, should I have any issues in changing it and will it affect my admission chances at all? Thanks!
I found two common app errors after submitting my applications. In my activity section header, I wrote John Hopkins Summer Program instead of Johns Hopkins. I spelled it correctly in my resume. BTW, I did not apply to Hopkins. Secondly, I wrote selected for Individual Golf Sectionals in 10,11,12 but I meant 9,10,11. 12 hasn’t happened yet, but I’m sure I will participate. Resume correctly says selected in freshman, sophomore, and junior year. Should I e-mail the schools with these two corrections or just leave it alone?
@mvf1999–Leave it alone!! No one will notice!
Thank you so much for being the voice of reason! It’s hard to see the forest through the trees right now. I really appreciate your response.
@mvf1999 -You’re right … at this time of year, it can be hard for high school seniors to see the forest through the trees. I agree that the convoluted, stressful admissions process often makes tough to view the Big Picture when there is so much minutia to tackle.
Your initial post also reminded me that it’s time to steel myself for a barrage of queries about potential application errors. They’ve already started, and I realize I can’t face them this year. With my newly-minted Medicare card now in my wallet, I’m just too old to address every picky potential error.
So I think I will evoke your wise words and admonish all seniors this admissions season to try to focus on the whole forest. Do the best you can on your applications but don’t beat yourself up (or email admission officials!) if you wrote “french” instead of “French” on your application or you said you attended Key Club meetings 5 hours a week when you meant 5 hours per month. Correct only egregious errors and use your OWN judgment when it comes to determining what qualifies. Before long, you will probably be living away from home and there will be countless decisions you will need to make without asking for assistance every single time. So this is a good place to start.
@Sally_Rubenstone I accidently flip-flopped my parents’ employers on the Common App section and submitted to a few schools. Should I inform my schools about this mistake?
@therealdeal23 -There’s probably no need to send a correction unless there’s something really significant or memorable about your parents’ employment … like if you were Malia Obama and said that your mother was the President of the United States. 
If you send me a private message that includes your parents’ employers and the colleges that each graduated from … if any … I’ll let you know if your minor error warrants a correction.
Also, if your parents are divorced or separated and you live with one and not the other, it would be important to accurately list the correct employer of your custodial parent.
@Sally_Rubenstone Thanks for the clarification. I still sent the admissions folks a quick email just in case.
Hi Sally!!
I put in my CommonApp that I am taking the IB Spanish A: Language and Literature test on 5/2017 when I am actually taking the IB Spanish B test then. Should I send an email to the 10 colleges I am applying to, or is this minor and won’t affect my chances?
I changed this on my CommonApp a few hours after I submitted all of my applications, but I don’t think the change would go through.
Help! Thank you!!
@NickE99 -You can’t change anything on the Common App after you’ve submitted it (although you CAN make changes on applications to subsequent schools). But in THIS case, you should absolutely let it go. Don’t email admission officials. The correct information will probably be on your transcript. And, if you wish, you can can also ask your school counselor to add a correction when he or she sends in your school information this fall or in January, when the mid-term report from your school will go out. But really, don’t worry about it.
If you do apply to additional colleges, then the change can be included. But leave it alone for the schools that already received your application.
With all of the nagging and checking, I really tried not to micro-manage my son. I asked that he meet with his GC and thought they had reviewed the CA together yesterday. After my son submitted 3 EAs today, I asked (don’t ask why I didn’t ask earlier… we CERTAINLY talked about it… but what does Mom know?) if he had his 100+ hours of community service on his apps. “No, it didn’t ask.” UGH!!! He applied to 3 catholic schools where community service involvement DOES matter in the admissions process.
So, what should he do now? I’m thinking he writes a letter or email and sends to each of the schools with "I’m so sorry I forgot to list community service… "
Thank you, in advance, for your help. (I also emailed his GC. But it was Friday at 4:30 and he’s out of town next week.)
Thankfully, I have just heard from my son’s GC. He asked that my son write a letter / word document and he’ll attach it to his LOR. That works, I guess. 
@phoenixmomof2 -Don’t worry, there are many ways to skin a cat. (Yikes? Did people actually talk like that when I was young? Not a great expression but apparently old habits die hard!)
If your son–or ANYONE’s child-- left community service (or another critical endeavor) off of the application, the oversight can be corrected just as this GC has suggested. Alternatively, if your son has done a lot of varied community service, he could even prepare a “community service resume” and snail-mail it to colleges explaining briefly that he’d omitted his extensive volunteer work from his application but that it’s a central part of his life so he wants to highlight it by giving it a separate document.
Hi Sally thank you for answering our questions.
I made a mistake self-reporting my ACT scores on my first Common App school. The question asks for “writing or combined english/writing”, so I used my ELA which was 31. Turns out that is only for the 2015 ACT and since I was using 2016 scores I should have used my writing score of 24. The school already has all my scores and these two scores were from the same test date so they can easily see my mistake & why I made it, I hope.
I emailed them and got more or less a standard reply that they can’t alter the application.
How bad a mistake is this?
I should add the the writing test is optional at this particular school. Thanks!
@emptyMT -This isn’t any sort of “bad” mistake at all. Colleges use the official score reports, and mistakes like yours during this confusing period of new scoring systems are very commonplace. So don’t lose a nanosecond of sleep over this.
Thank you so much! I was so worried they would think I’m trying to cheat or something.
Hi Sally,
I have quick question. For my columbia app (i already submitted), i put down on my resume “submitted research paper for publication” instead of “will be submitting research paper”… Should I make this correction? I’m not sure if I should because I will likely be submitting the paper within the next few weeks. So if I do update the adcoms that I “will be submitting” and then actually submit the paper later, I will have to update them again to let them know that I submitted the paper. Thanks!
@cougar123–Did you apply Early Decision? And, if so, will you submit the research paper before the Early Decision applications are evaluated (roughly mid-November)? If you ARE applying ED but won’t be submitting it by then, you should send a correction. However, it’s a bit hard to answer this question without knowing what other information you gave Columbia about the paper. For instance, did you send a synopsis of it? And to whom do you intend to submit it? Having the answers to those questions could help me answer your question more effectively.
@Sally_Rubenstone
Thank you for such a quick response! I am applying ED and I did send in a brief abstract to columbia, and I will be submitting to a research journal (low impact factor). It’s hard to tell if I will be submitting for publication before Nov. 1st. I think I may just send the correction in…