@scaredtesttaker1 - Were you able to preview your application to be certain that the academic experiences essay will be visible to the admission officials and not cut off because of the many words in that supplement (the 650-word essay plus the academic experiences essay)? If both essays are visible, then don’t do anything else. This is not going to affect your admission decision in any way.
@Sally_Rubenstone Thank you! Yes, I am certain that neither essay was cut off. I will try to breathe easy until April.
Hi Sally, sorry to bother you again. In my UChicago Essay, I bolded many parts of my essay (stylistic stuff) and I really like it. However, I saw in previous posts that we should not bold unless we absolutely have to (and they said that its distasteful). I dont know if I should shoot the uni an email with nonbolded version. Will the admission officers be frustrated with the bolds?
@Fun123- Please do NOT contact UChicago about the bold type. The admission folks will NOT be bothered by it, but they MIGHT be bothered if you send an email with an updated version.
Trust me–if you’re not accepted there, it will have nothing to do with the bold print!
@Sally_Rubenstone I accidently put my mother’s current last name instead of her past last name (as well as an incorrect middle initial) on the common application. Do I need to contact the admissions offices of the schools the incorrect information was sent to?
I feel that it’s worth mentioning 2 things: (1) The schools that I sent the common app to with this error are very selective (top 10) and (2) I reported my mother as having completed her masters (which is true) and my father’s information is correctly listed as him having a bachelors
@JohnZKL- I’m not sure why listing your mother’s current last name is an error unless you listed it under the “Former” surname heading. And, if so, what did you list under the Last/Family/Surname for her (which is the place where the current name should go)?
In any case, the most important thing is that your Common App forms and your financial aid forms (if any) match each other. So if you used a different current surname for your mom, plus a different middle initial, on financial aid forms that have already been submitted, then you should email a brief correction to your colleges.
If you aren’t applying for aid, making a change is not critical although it would be helpful to have more information about how you incorrectly listed your mother on the Common App. Because the Common App asks for a parent’s CURRENT surname as well as any FORMER surname, it’s not clear to me if you answered both questions with the same current name or did something else.
@Sally_Rubenstone Thank you for the quick response! To clarify:
The current surname I listed was correct, but I gave an incorrect middle initial and put her full middle name in the former surname text-box. So her former surname doesn’t appear on the applications.
I plan on applying for aid regardless of where I go and I haven’t yet applied for any financial aid at specific schools (I’m certainly going to be more careful with the information on those forms.). I have filed my FAFSA, and all the information on it is correct.
My main worry is that an inconsistency with parent information will lower (or remove) my chances at admission; I would hope that financial aid wouldn’t be denied from an absent-minded mistake
Since you will be applying for financial aid, your best bet is to send a brief email to your colleges with your mother’s correct name, including the proper middle name, just to guarantee that the Common App, financial aid forms, and her tax forms all match.
Don’t worry … this initial confusion (and the email to correct it) will have no impact whatsoever on your admission chances or on your financial aid eligibility. Just make sure that all the documents are consistent when it comes to your name and your parents’ names.
Hello, Sally,
I am a parent. My child has just submitted her application to colleges for several days. She just found two mistakes in her essays for two colleges
:
1, In the sentence “I am thrilled to take a more systemic approach to these insights.”, she should use “systematic” to replace “systemic”;
2, In “As some one who has experienced such changes since little”, she should say"since I was little" instead of “since little”.
I am very worried about these mistakes now. Does she need to wrote to the two colleges to amend the two mistakes?
Thank you and look forward to your suggestion!
Systemic is a medical term…
Systemic is a medical term…
@Julia465894949 -Your daughter should not send a correction for these minor mistakes. If she is not admitted to her target college or colleges, it won’t be because of this. Admission officials will know what she meant, and by sending a follow-up email, she’s also sending a message that suggests, “I didn’t take the time to proofread carefully, so now YOU have to take extra time to consider my corrections.”
So she shouldn’t worry about these errors and, especially, YOU shouldn’t either!
Hi, Sally. Thanks s much for your kind reply!
We regretted not using the revised version with the corrected words to upload to the system. But we will take your suggestion and will not feel worried any more.
Thanks again for your great advice!! =D>
I’m a high school graduate who’s taking a gap year and applying to colleges right now. When I was reviewing my common app, I realized that I forgot to change my answer under “Please indicate if any of these options will have affected your progression through or since secondary school” to “did or will take gap year.” Should I email colleges and tell them about this mistake?
@heyhsin -If I’m interpreting your correctly, then I DO think you should send a correction to colleges. Admission officials will wonder why you seem to have already graduated from high school yet didn’t indicate that you’re doing a gap year. So the clarification will be very helpful to them.
I just applied to a bunch of schools and noticed that I mistakenly flipped my grade levels participated for two activities between my common app and resume. For example, my common app says i tutored for 2 years while my resume says three and I volunteered for 3 years while my resume says 2. Should I contact the schools?
@apache220 --NO!!! Do not contact your schools.
This reminds me of an old card trick I used to do where I could always get my “victims” to confuse the two of spades and three of clubs with the three of spades and two of clubs. At least 99 percent of them never noticed the difference … and those who did were usually 7 years old or younger. 
Likewise, it’s unlikely that the admission folks will catch this small discrepancy on your applications, but–even if they do–it’s nothing worth bothering them about, and it certainly won’t affect your admission outcomes.
Hi Sally. I just found my child typed wrongly the phone number in the forms for one university. Does she need to write to correct it? I doubt applicants are usually contacted by colleges via email, not by phone. Thank you!
@Julia465894949 --You mean she entered her OWN phone number incorrectly? She can let this go since the phone calls that come from colleges are usually annoying recruiting calls. When my son was a senior, he did get a couple calls from current students saying, “Do you have questions you need answered?” so your daughter would miss out on this opportunity if she doesn’t send a correction. But, personally, I’d view that as a blessing!