@Sam0954 -Typically I discourage students from contacting admission offices to correct application errors unless they’re egregious. But I do have concerns about mistakes, like yours, where classes are not accurately reported. Although your transcript will override what you’ve listed on the application yourself, it might confuse admission folks to see some classes on your transcript that you did not self-report. So, in THIS case, I DO think it’s a good idea to email admission offices to add the omitted courses. You will NOT be “in trouble” for this so don’t worry.
And … as long as you’re writing to correct the course-listing error, you can also clarify the Honors section omission. This is certainly not worth correcting on its own. But, because you’re writing a letter anyway, it’s worth mentioning.
I put down my SAT test date as 8/1/18 rather than 8/25/18. For this particular school, an official score report is only required if I’m accepted (so they currently don’t have an official report to compare my test scores/dates to). Is this major enough of a mistake to send them an email about? Thank you so much for alleviating the worries of so many stressed seniors!
@oddtreesea -Definitely DON’T notify the colleges of this small mistake. As long as the scores themselves were reported accurately, you have nothing to worry about.
I made the same mistake as @nbabaria and put the name of the award correctly, but check marked the wrong category. I put National instead of School. I’ve already submitted the application. What should I do? Should I contact the college and inform them of the mistake or just leave it? Please help me
@nealspectre -Definitely let it go. The college folks realize that those categories are confusing and don’t pay much attention to them. Your small mistake won’t hurt you and will probably go unnoticed.
Ok thank you. Also, for the activities section do we include the hours and weeks that we will do in 12th grade for the hours/week and weeks/year portion?
@nealspectre -yes, you should include senior activities and hours but if you drop a MAJOR activity during 12th grade, after reporting it on your application (or if you cut way back on hours), you should notify colleges of the change.
Ok. Also, for the award that I asked about earlier, I didn’t highlight and describe it in the application, and its not a well-known award. I already submitted the application, so should I update the college and let them know what the award is, or will that affect me negatively at this point?
@nealspectre -This award is self-explanatory. Do NOT send additional information about it to colleges. The admission officials at any college where it might matter will already understand it.
“8. Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?
Things to consider: If there’s anything you want us to know about you, but didn’t find a question or place in the application to tell us, now’s your change. What have you not shared with us that will highlight a skill, talent, challenge or opportunity that you think will help us know you better?
From your point of view, what do you feel makes you an excellent choice for UC? Don’t be afraid to brag a little.”
For the UC Prompt 8, I talked about curiosity. Is that okay since its more of a character trait than a skill, talent, challenge, or opportunity? Can I talk about curiosity in the essay?
@nealspectre -If you feel that your curiosity is a trait that sets you apart from the crowd, then it’s a reasonable topic for this UC prompt
I’m not clear, however, from your question if you want to also talk about curiosity in a DIFFERENT essay as well. It’s not a good idea to write more than one essay (that will go to the same college) on a single topic. But that may not be what you’re asking.
Hello Ms. Rubenstone,
on my common app, for the testing section, I put my act ela score instead of the writing score for the essay… is it worth it to notify the college? I didn’t send official reports, just self-reported scores. Thank you in advance
@sunfire1 -You should let this go. Most colleges pay little (or no) attention to the ACT writing score these days, and the admission folks should be able to figure out what you did since the Writing score and the ELA score are on different scales.
My daughter reported her GPA incorrectly on the common app… She put that her weighted was 4.88, when her final transcript (she is homeschooled) shows 4.93. (Her unweighted was a similar error. Should she contact schools she has submitted to to correct this? (I did her school report and submitted her homeschool transcript, including her dual credit grades, and her community college submitted a transcript to verify those dual credit grades.)
@sapmom-As long as colleges have her official transcript and it’s correct. your daughter doesn’t need to bother admission officials with this minor adjustment. They will go by the official transcript, and both versions translate to a 4.9 when rounded to the nearest two digits. Some colleges even create their own GPA’s, so there’s no need to split hairs over this discrepancy. Let it go and don’t worry about it.
In my son’s common application, he listed out the number of hours for community service as of end of October - the time he submitted his early applications. I realized the mistake when reading some of the posts here and in other forums. Should he notify each school? He would have about 25-30 hours more of community services.
@Tabitha18 -My advice is for your son to leave this alone. It’s not actually a “mistake” since it’s tough for students to decide if they should report to colleges only the activities they’ve ALREADY accomplished or also include those that are pending. But, in this case, an extra 25-30 hours of community service won’t affect your son’s admission outcomes. So I don’t think he should bother the busy admission folks with an extra email at this point.
BUT … if your son is expecting to receive his college verdicts after the first semester of the school year is over, then he might send out an update letter in January (around the time that his school counselor will be submitting mid-year reports) that covers all of his accomplishments since he first applied. This update letter is the perfect place to explain the service-hours snafu.
