@futurenyustudent -Yep. Make sure you include a brief cover note and that both this note and the actual resume include your full name (as it appears on your application), your school name and your home/city town so that the NYU admission folks don’t mix you up with another applicant with the same or similar name and/or will know where to direct it.
@CA1543 -There have been a lot of formatting issues with the Common App. If your pdf/preview looks good, then leave it as it is.
You can also try reformatting your essay so that you are indenting new paragraphs rather than using block paragraphs (spaces between paragraphs).
Some students have found that the indented paragraphs look the same on the pdf as they do on the Common App itself.
Thanks Sally!
Hello Miss Rubenstone,
I submitted an application to Harvard University, but it had my old ACT scores, because I just recieved my new ones after submitting. Do I need to give them a heads-up of the December scores coming their way? Furthermore, I also submitted my AP scores to MIT; however, they are not all that great. Looking on some forums, people are saying that the scores can hurt your app, matter very little at all, or don’t affect your chances whatsoever. Do you know MIT’s policy on these scores, and can I retract them so they do not affect my application? (Otherwise, I have good grades, a 34 superscore, and such…) Do you recommend I send a letter otherwise?
Thank you immensly for your help!
Hi guys
This might have been answered already but should I email the office of admissions if my ECs aren’t in order of importance? It was a really small screw up since my ECs were in order but it starts with a less important one first then goes to most important then descends accordingly
@TheQuestionMan - You don’t have to give Harvard the heads-up on the new scores. The admission staff will see and process them when they arrive from the ACT.
Re your AP scores and MIT: The vast majority of MIT applicants submit AP exam scores and do very well (4’s and 5’s but mostly 5’s) on multiple tests. So if you DON’T submit any scores, it will disadvantage you in this process unless you come from a disadvantaged background yourself. (Do you?) Submitting scores that “are not all that great” is probably better than submitting no scores at all. Unless the scores you submitted were mostly 3’s, 2’s, and 1’s, then sending in scores is better than sending in no scores so that the admission folks won’t assume the worst-case-scenario.
So-so AP exam results are not an automatic deal-breaker anywhere, but the scores do sometimes serve as a tie-breaker when admission folks are evaluating similar-sounding candidates. Thus any candidate who offers atypical strengths can overcome subpar AP results.
@FlapDragon - Definitely leave this alone. You’re better off living with the mistake than you are if you send the college folks a message that implies, “I didn’t bother following instructions in the first place.”
If you haven’t already sent a resume to colleges, you can do that now and you can make it an “annotated activities list” where you write a brief sentence or two about each of your most important endeavors. That will give you the opportunity to list your commitments in order of priority and also to state explicitly what you care about most. Just make sure your name and other identifying details are on your resume and that you don’t send it anywhere (e.g., Stanford) that forbids such extra submissions.
Thank you for the reply! The scores are of the lower range, so can I call the college and ask for them to not consider my AP scores during the admissions review? I had no idea reporting these were optional.
@TheQuestionMan-Send me a private message and tell me what all of your AP scores were (Subject + Score) and if any of them were for classes that you didn’t actually take (so you self-studied for the test) and thus the class won’t appear on your transcript. Also tell me if you believe that you are from an advantaged background, middle-class, disadvantaged, etc.
As I said above, sending low AP scores to an elite college can sometimes be better than sending NO scores, even though the scores aren’t mandatory.
@Sally_Rubenstone I was selected to participate in a competitive internship program with a local university. I had all intentions of participating and listed it as the number 2 EC on my common app. Because of several logistical problems that have arisen, I may no longer be able to participate and I am wondering if I should notify admissions and explain the situation.
@Sally_Rubenstone On my application I listed two community service activities as:
Activity #1 (participated in grades 9, 10, 11)
Activity #2 (participated in grades 10, 11, 12)
I was transitioning between activity #1 and activity #2 for a period of time between 10th and 11th grade, so I included grade 11 for Activity #1 and grade 10 for Activity #2, but on further inspection, this gives me ~150-200 more hours than I really should have. I don’t want to misrepresent myself in my application. Should I submit a correction? Any suggestion as to the best wording?
@chica2-Yes, you should definitely notify your colleges if you drop the internship. Try to do it in a way that reflects well on you and doesn’t imply that the internship was just too much commitment or hassle … e.g., “The internship meant I had to give up my beloved orchestra” sounds a lot better than, “The 35 minute bus ride to the internship was a pain” … or “my DVR didn’t work so I kept missing my favorite afternoon soap opera.” 
@CantFeelMyFace -I wouldn’t suggest sending a correction since your chances of confusing (or annoying) the admission folks are greater than your chances of providing them with helpful information. But what you CAN do is to submit a separate resume which gives you a little more space to explain the transition from one activity to the next and to list the number of hours you actually spent on each undertaking … and when.
One of my frustrations with the Common App is that it often doesn’t allow students to clarify how much time they spent on an activity. In the old days, when applications were made of paper and students often filled them out by hand, it was easy to write that you participated in an activity, say, “4 to 24 hours/week depending on season.” This was helpful to athletes who may have trained a bit in the off-season and were consumed by their sport once its season began. Similarly, the paper apps allowed students to explain situations like yours.
So given the limitations of the Common App, I wouldn’t worry about what you wrote down.
Hello Ms. Rubenstone,
Prior to today, when I submitted my UPenn application, I did not notice that for my birthplace, I put “San Jose, Korea” instead of “Seoul, Korea.” I submitted it like that for most of my applications, should I email the colleges to inform them of the mistake?
Thank you.
@Leviaking -I’m assuming that San Jose, Korea is not a real place. (Do you live in San Jose … California or somewhere else … now?) If San Jose is a town or suburb close to Seoul, then I’d say leave it. But I doubt that’s the case. So, if it doesn’t exist at all, send a brief correction to your colleges in order to clear up potential confusion.
Ahahaha what an experience! And with the Nobel-mentioning, that would be amazing!! 
Thank you so much for your very clear reply, I really appreciate it. Now I don’t have to worry about it :"
Have a great weekend! 
Hi Ms. Rubenstone,
On the Common App, I noticed that I listed a dual-enrollment AP class on the Colleges/Universities section when I was not supposed to list it in this section. I’m not sure if the class will appear on the transcript clearly due to it also being an AP class. Should I email admissions offices to clear the mistake or is it insignificant within context?
Thanks so much.
@Axlevision22 -I’M confused so maybe the colleges will be, too. What was the course in question and, above all, WHERE did you take it? Was it offered on a college campus or at your high school? Please provide more detail and then I’ll let you know if you should send a clarification. But, in any case, it’s nothing you need to stress over.
If I realized after sending in my Common Application to universities that there were actually two activities that I have had significant participation in during high school but forgot to add to the activities section, what should I do?
@pianogal123-Send a resume to your colleges that includes these activities, assuming that a resume is accepted … which it usually is. An email stating, “I forgot to mention a couple important activities” is an option, but the admission folks could potentially be annoyed by your lack of attention to detail and will also question how “important” these endeavors are to you since you didn’t initially list them.