Hello. I recently submitted an application to Notre Dame RD. In one of my supplemental essays, I intended on having a word italicized, but after reviewing my submitted documents I saw that it was not (maybe it was a glitch when I pasted it into the Common App?). I am worried that this may change the meaning of my essay’s final sentence. I intended it to read “Once I am both passionate AND knowledgeable, I will be able to…” In the context of the essay this is supposed to show that I have passion, but I lack the proper intellect to express it effectively. However, when the sentence lacks the italicized “and,” it makes it seem like I currently lack BOTH passion and intellect: “Once I am both passionate and knowledgeable, I can…” Maybe I am just freaking out… But I dont want the admissions office to think that I am admitting to a lack of passion… Would it be silly to send an email specifying that this word was meant to be italicized?
@cpre98 -It will probably be clear from your application that you MEANT to say 2018. But if you are feeling anxious about this, you can email a quick correction to the admission office so that the admission officials definitely won’t be confused.
@aristicslobe - Your meaning will be completely clear, so no need to freak out and no need to do anything. You will just come across as obsessive if you contact the admission officials. Admission folks rush through essays such as this one at breakneck speed, so even if the italics had come through on the Common App, the readers probably wouldn’t have noticed anyway. So let it go and stop worrying.
On my Harvard common app, there is a question “nested” within the main question page (i.e. not a separate writing supplement page). The question asks:
“Your intellectual life may extend beyond the academic requirements of your particular school. Please use the space below to list additional intellectual activities that you have not mentioned or detailed elsewhere in your application. These could include, but are not limited to, supervised or self-directed projects not done as school work, training experiences, online courses not run by your school, or summer academic or research programs not described elsewhere.”
And the question is optional.
I wrote down an answer to this question, elaborating on my research internship over the summer working at a materials science lab, and some other activities.
HOWEVER, since this question was optional, I completely forgot to paste my answer into the Common App from my Microsoft Word file. (!!)
I submitted it blank!
I really want to provide a good answer to this question, but obviously I can’t change my app now. Should I contact adcom about this? If so, how should I tell them this? (Should I say I forgot to copy paste it in? Or should I not bother with excuses?)
It is not the end of the world, since I do have a supplemental letter from the professor/mentor I worked with (if they read it). BUT I feel that I am sending a bad statement by leaving it blank.
Thank you so much for your help and support!
@Paperapper -Your best bet is to email the “missing” answer to your regional admissions rep at Harvard with a Cc to the general Harvard admissions Web site. Explain your mistake BRIEFLY and apologize for taking their time to read your correction. Just tell them what you told me … that it was simple human error: you wrote the response then forgot to paste it in. Keep it simple and honest. If you don’t get into Harvard, it won’t be due to this, I assure you.
@Sally_Rubenstone
I recently got into my ED school but could not obtain any financial aid information, whereas other people who got accepted could see theirs. After further investigation I found out that I forgot to put in my social security number into the Common App! I’m not entirely sure what to do. Do you think if I call them I will still be able to qualify for aid this year? (I submitted all of my other documents on time)
I couldn’t self report my Pre-IB grades on UC application because the program was between my 10th grade and 11th grade but it was not a summer program. I have just sent the UC admission offices my Pre IB grades with the explanation above as an update to my application, but I’m worried if they will still accept such a significant change at this period of time. Should I feel worried that I might ve refused by all UCs because of this huge mistake?
@TheMangcut -This isn’t a huge mistake, and UC admissions should accept your explanation so don’t stress over this. However, if you don’t get any response within about three weeks, contact UC again just to make sure that your explanation didn’t get lost. Or–better yet–ask your school counselor to follow up for you, if you have a counselor who is likely to help you out in this way. (It’s very possible that UC will get this information and not send a response; so a lack of a reply doesn’t mean that the info wasn’t added to your file.)
@barnacleboy15 -Did you fill out all the financial aid forms and submit them by the deadline? If you are an undocumented applicant, you would not be able to complete a FAFSA. But, otherwise, you should have had to put your SS# on your financial aid forms as well as on your Common App. Did you not include it at all? Did you indicate on your ED application that you DID plan to apply for aid?
In any case, you need to telephone the admission office tomorrow (or today if the college is in a time zone where offices are still open) and ask why you received no financial information. If you did submit the required aid forms on time and indicated on your application that you planned to seek aid, it’s likely that you will still be eligible for aid (assuming that you qualify in the first place).
It’s also possible that the college is still working on your aid award and that it’s pending, even if other students did get theirs.
But you should be able to clear this up with a phone call to the admissions office.
Good luck!
Thank you so much for that advice about emailing the regional Harvard adcom about my “missing” question for CommonApp!
(I’m sure you lead a busy life, so if you don’t recall this discussion, what happened was that I had accidentally left an optional question blank on my Harvard app, although I had written it.)
I just had one question - I have an alumni interview this weekend. Would it be better if I just hand that “missing” question to him in person, and explain to him in person about my mistake? Or should I stick with emailing my regional adcom?
@Sally_Rubenstone Sorry for asking again. The deadline for the UC Application was 30th November but it is January now that I update my missing grades, and it’s a lot of grades because my Pre-IB program was a 6 months program. I received an email from one of the UCs saying that if they receive the update before my application is reviewed then the update will be added to my application. Does that mean if my application is already reviewed then they won’t go back even if they receive an update? The admission offer is out in March so do I have a chance of my app not being reviewed yet? Thank you so much for helping me!!!
@Paperapper -It’s not appropriate to give your “missing” question to your interviewer. It would just be a nuisance for him to have to relay it to the admission office. You can mention your oversight to him briefly, if you wish, but don’t make a big deal about it. However, it could provide a useful “gateway” to discuss your research internship. But the emphasis should be on the internship itself and not on the application snafu. That’s not really something that an alumnus is equipped to deal with.
@TheMangcut -My best guess is that your application has not been reviewed yet. I have no way of knowing for sure, of course, but the UC schools receive gazillion of applications and it takes a long time just to process them. With the holidays intervening and most admission offices closed for a week or more, it’s probable that your application awaits review. And, even if it HAS already been reviewed, it’s possible that it will be reviewed again once new information arrives … but it might not be. Can you have your school counselor intervene on your behalf, as I’d suggested earlier?
@Sally_Rubenstone I can’t thank you enough for helping me with my worries. I just have one last question and please forgive me for being so troublesome.
I saw that you said at the beginning of the thread that I shouldn’t do too many follow-ups, but the more I went through my UC application, the more mistakes I found even though I have gone through it carefully every time, and they were all academic mistakes that need to be reported to the admission offices. At the moment, I have sent the general UC Application Center 3 different academic updates including an addition of my Theory of Knowledge course that I did not know where to categorize in the application, an update of my Pre-IB program and another one about my school’s weird grading system in term 4.
It must be very troublesome for the admission offices to keep receiving updates like that, right? I did write in the correspondence to each campus that I am am truly very sorry because my school transcript is confusing and doesn’t fit the self-report format on the UC App. Do you think my continuing mistakes will cause all the campuses to refuse me from admission? I have a hunch that they will but I just need to know fully well to prepare myself.
I’m so sorry for keep asking you more questions. I really appreciate your help.
For most of my Common App Colleges, I did not realize that I was supposed to list the activities in order. Should I email these schools to notify them of my mistake?
@LaMaisonDesLunes -Probably not (it won’t do you any favors to take admission officials’ precious time to read your correction) but I can’t answer effectively without knowing particulars. For instance, will it REALLY matter if you listed Spanish Club ahead of Model UN, when you actually prefer MUN over Spanish? Well, it MIGHT matter if your entire essay was about how passionate you are about MUN, and yet you put it as #8 on the activities list. Similarly, if all of the activities to which you gave tons of time for several years are down at the bottom of the list, while the ones you did for two weekends in 9th grade are at the top, the admission folks might wonder why you put so much effort into endeavors you don’t seem to care about a lot.
In such cases, you should send an apologetic correction with a re-ordered list. But if there isn’t a huge difference in importance to you (and in time/effort spent) between the top entries and the lower ones, I’d advise you to let the list stand as it is. Admission officials will be reading your list quickly, looking to see how you have spent your time outside of class, whether you’ve done anything atypical and whether you’ve held leadership roles. They really won’t be paying a whole lot of attention to the order of the list unless there are some “flags,” as noted above, that might make them wonder how time-consuming undertakings ended up at the bottom while seemingly less consequential ones were put at the top.
My S just noticed a mistake on his already submitted Common App. He described one of his IB courses as Standard Level when, in fact, it is Higher Level. The official transcript submitt by his high school correctly lists the class as Higher Level. Should he contact the schools and ask them to correct his application? Thank you.
I put on my CSU, UC, and Coalition application that this six week AP Psychology summer course I took was graded yearly because there was always only one grade displayed when I checked on the school’s website. I just received my unofficial transcript and for some reason there are two semesters and two grades displayed. They’re both the same grade, so this wouldn’t affect my GPA, but should I contact the schools about the grading schedule error? Thank you!
@tooanxious -This could go either way. The college folks will focus on the official transcript but they MIGHT be confused by the discrepancy. So I vote for a brief clarifying email from your son. But it’s nothing to worry about.
@ucAdmirer -This is nothing to worry about at all. Let it go.