Correcting application errors after submission … or not

@Sally_Rubenstone – My Daughter was accepted by Cornell (ED) this year. However I recently found out that she misrepresented her scholastic art & writing award by mistake. She got regional award while she entered national by mistake. My daughter has very high SAT score (1580) and high ranking (top 5%) in one of best high school in New Jersey. She has highest grade in 3 students accepted into Cornell(ED).
My daughter withdrew all the other applications and it is too late to apply to other school.

Question: will Cornell revoke rescind acceptance due to this careless mistake?

@Sally_Rubenstone, Hello Ms. Rubenstone, I really appreciate your help on my daughter’s case (posted above), Should she contact her high school counselor ? Thanks very much

@wxqwen -Your daughter’s Scholastic art award–whether regional or national–is not what got her into Cornell, and it sounds like she made an honest mistake when she listed it as “National.” Those headings are very confusing to many students (and parents) and I get a lot of queries in the fall from folks who don’t don’t how to classify an honor or award.

Your daughter should send a note to her regional rep at Cornell (the admission official who oversees applicants from her high school) to explain that she made an honest mistake because she thought the award was different than what it really was and recently found out that she had misclassified it on her application. She can say that she is excited to begin her life at Cornell in the fall and wants to make sure that this discrepancy is cleared up before she matriculates. I really don’t think that this is something that she–or you–should worry about, but it’s still wise to set the record straight now.

@Sally_Rubenstone, Hello, Ms Rubenstone, thanks you very much for your advice. My daughter and I will have a good sleep tonight. :-*

@Sally_Rubenstone, Hello, Ms Rubenstone, sorry for bothering you again, my daughter is 3 year editor and 1 year Editor-in-Chief for school literary magazine, she put “Editor-in-Chief of Word, the literary magazine” in your application. Should she correct this information in the mail to regional rep also (in addition to scholastic award)? Thanks

@wxqwen -I’m not entirely clear on what the issue is here. Do you mean that your daughter’s application implied that she was Editor-in-Chief for four years rather than for just one? If that’s the case, just let it go. I blame the Common App for not providing a format to allow students to clarify their positions, the amount of time they spend on each activity, which can vary from year to year or season to season. So if I’m correct about what you’re asking, just let this go.

@Sally_Rubenstone, Hello, Ms Rubenstone, below is in my daughter’s application

grade 9, 10, 11, 12
School
1 hr/wk, 20 wk/yr
Editor-in-Chief of Word, the literary magazine
Edit and compile submissions into a magazine. The short story I submitted was accepted in published in this magazine.

Since her activities are not shining and her grade is good enough for Cornell (at least 15 students from HS were accepted each year in previous years), so she did not put a lot of time on editing activities.

@Sally_Rubenstone, you are correct, her application implied that she was Editor-in-Chief for four years rather than for just one. I will ask her to let this go. I really appreciate your effort and your time to help me and the others during the anxious college application seasons. Thanks & Regards.

@wxqwen -Yes, let this go. As I said above, I fault the Common App design for making it hard for students to explain that their roles–and hours of participation–in various activities may change from year to year or even season to season. The discrepancy you describe would not impact an admissions verdict one way or the other. Although it’s important for students to be honest on applications, I don’t think that this is a case where your daughter truly misrepresented herself so just leave it be.

@Sally_Rubenstone Hello, put student council under the “Academic” section of activities on my resume instead of the “Leadership” one. Should I email a correction or is this not a big deal? Thanks so much

@abc2018 NO!!! Don’t sent a correction. No one will notice if you don’t make the change but they may think you’re obsessive if you do. This is fine as is; don’t worry about it.

Hi, I have a question regarding the “Weeks spent per year” part of the Activities section. Say I started a volunteer activity 4 weeks ago, but I am committed to 12 weeks of volunteering - should I only put 4 weeks per year? Or should I put 12? Thank you so much for doing this!

@Mukigachar -There is such a small difference between 4 weeks and 12 that it doesn’t matter what you put down. If you’re SURE you’ll finish all 12 weeks, it’s okay to put down 12 since the discrepancy between 4 and 12 will have absolutely no impact on your college outcomes. Ordinarily, I tell seniors who have just started a new activity that they can’t put down all the hours they expect to complete by the end of the year. But that applies primarily to seniors who have put in 4 or 5 hours and want to write down 50 or 60 or more. In YOUR case, it’s okay to put down the 12 since the Common App doesn’t allow you to explain what the situation really is.

@Sally_Rubenstone

Hi Sally, S put down “Principal role in 15 Theater Productions” as a heading for an EC with 15hrs./week for 12weeks, and then provided the following detail: “Performed since age 10 with professional, community, and school theater groups.” Do you think this will need to be clarified that the 15 theater productions where since he was 10 and not only in High School?

@Haaland -This is clear and you don’t have to worry about it at all.

@Sally_Rubenstone
Hi Sally,
My school has an honors club called “Scholars Society”, but for some reason I thought it was called “Hillsborough Wolverines Club” (our mascot is the wolverine). I wrote the latter title under list of honors on the common app. I feel very silly to make such a mistake over such an unimportant aspect of my application (it only requires a 3.5 gpa to be included, so it’s not particularly prestigious). Should I contact my schools to clarify my mistake? And would that negatively affect my app to make such a dumb blunder?
Thanks!

@ambitionsquared -No need to make any waves about this. You indicated on your application that the 'Hillsborough Wolverines Club" is an honors society, so the college folks will now know that you are in one, and that’s really all they need to know. They won’t care about the name … and they actually won’t care about the society either (as you said yourself, the selection bar is not set high). Definitely leave this alone. It doesn’t matter in the least.

@Sally_Rubenstone
Thanks for responding! Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that I indicated “Hillsborough Wolverines Club” is an honors society. Under the honors section, I just filled in “Honors 1 Title: Hillsborough Wolverines Club; Grade Level: 10, 11, 12; Level of Recognition: School”. Do you think they could infer that I’m referring to an honors society?

@ambitionsquared -Leave this alone. The college folks will get what you meant and they won’t really care about it anyway.

So for background, I go to a religious high school where we are required to take a religious ed class each year. I somehow omitted these classes while filling out my UC application and I was wondering how I should approach notifying them of this omission so there is not a discrepancy between my final transcript and the classes that I reported. Thanks in advance.