<p>Lizzzyk–This will not affect your chances so don’t worry. In fact, an exhausted admission officer who is reading applications in the wee hours probably won’t even notice.</p>
<p>Hi Sally,</p>
<p>I have three questions:</p>
<p>On my supplement essay I accidentally used:</p>
<p>“Simon Says, laugh!” and without hesitation the everyone in the class would burst out with loud, cheerful, and exaggerated laughter. Then finally, “Simon says, angkouy?!” and all the kids, surprised and excited, sat back down to their seats.</p>
<p>For my Wesleyan App I have both errors “the” and “?!”, for my Dartmouth App I have “the” error, and for Bowdoin I have the “?!” error. </p>
<p>Also for this one:</p>
<p>NYU is where I belong and I can’t wait to represent the NYU Class of 2018.</p>
<p>I forgot a comma before “and”</p>
<p>And finally for this one:</p>
<p>…should be addressed to me and my parents. (should be “my parents and me”). or does both work?</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on what I should do about these? Thanks! I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>To Sally_Rubenstone
Thank you so much for your advice. As an international student I encounter many obstacles while choosing schools. I have emailed the university that I made the mistake and I also choose some rolling schools. However, I am nervous because noone reads my application, the abroaders of previous years that I know are too busy.
I have found many sound advice on Collegeconfidential forum. I really appriciate your quick reply and support.
Thank you.</p>
<p>theedman - You really should go back and read this thread - if not the entire thing, at least the first couple of pages.</p>
<p>The errors you mentioned are trivial. No one is going to notice them, particular an exhausted admissions officer reading your essays late at night. To be honest, I had to reread your post twice just to find the errors you were concerned about - and I’m wide awake (and a professional editor)!</p>
<p>Thank you Sally. I just shook my head at my mistake. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the participate.</p>
<p>I might have seriously messed up with my ec section. For an activity, I mentioned my time taking piano lessons as 9 years (up to 12th grade), when it was really a few years longer; I also mentioned a piano reward I received in 9th grade for getting high ratings in this event for 8 years straight, which would mean I’ve been taking piano for about 10 or 11 years, not 9. I’m thinking this is something I need to address, or else the inconsistency might make the application look faked-</p>
<p>Alone555 - No one is going to notice, much less do the math.</p>
<p>I’m with dodgersmom on all of these hairsplitting questions. In fact, it’s making me a little cross-eyed (not to mention cross!) just to read them.</p>
<p>I realize that the college admission process is confusing and intimidating. I understand the inclination to angst over application errors, however minor, when it’s too late to correct them.</p>
<p>But to all of you who are angsting right now: DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF! Unless your application is riddled with typos (I’m talking 10 or more … not 2 … and I’m not talking misplaced commas AT ALL) or unless you have made some sort of egregious mistake (e.g., you said you played varsity football for four years when you really played fantasy football for four years), stop worrying … and stop asking!</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone. I hope that all of you get the news you’re hoping for this spring. But if you don’t, it won’t be because of the kinds of application errors that most of you are asking about here.</p>
<p>Hello, I am planning on sending a letter to the college I am applying to saying that my grandmother went there (even though they say legacy is parents only I figure it can’t hurt), that I will be taking all exams for my ap classes at the end of the year (i thought this was implied because my school requires the test and I did not self report), and that I misspelled a word in my awards section spelled in a foreign language. Which of these correction s do you think would be beneficial to add to my file iif it is a low reach for me (but my top choice)? Thank you!</p>
<p>OK I actually have a major issue. I created a website whose link I didnt mention in the app. But in my update message to Harvard I accidentally typed the wrong link that led to an inappropriate site ; ( I sent the correction in another message. but for some reason thr hyperlink to the wrong address was still there. I sent a third message with a clarification in case they click the link directly. I have anxiety guys so pls…tell me honestly but kindly…what u think.
my reasoning is that im ok bcuz I believe these emails just get forwarded to the file room. I just hope they dont consider me annoying.</p>
<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I’m sorry to bother this thread, but I have a problem and I would like your advise Salle, or anyone else’s</p>
<p>So I have this problem: I just edited some things of my CommonApp essay AFTER I submitted it to the colleges I applied to. Most of them had deadlines on 01/01/2014</p>
<p>I sent them an email asking if I could change my CommonApp essay and send them an improved version on email.
However, I am afraid this will SEVERELY hurt my application. Like, they will think bad of me.
It’s true I had months to prepare my essay, and I was positive that my essay was amazing.
I mean, it’s ok/good, but I just found a way to make it even better, but I don’t know if asking for an essay change can give a bad image of me. I already sent an email asking if I could change my essay</p>
<p>Was it a good idea?</p>
<p>AspiringStudent–Your email will make its way to your file, even if you sent it to the general Harvard undergrad admissions address. I do hope that you inserted some humor into your correction. The situation certainly lends itself to it. ;)</p>
<p>Guille19–Asking for an essay do-over was NOT a good idea. But it will not SEVERELY hurt your application … or hurt it at all, if you just let it go. Don’t send the admission folks any additional corrections or nit-picky emails. If you leave them alone to do their job, your do-over request will be shoved on the back burner. If you don’t get into the colleges that received your request to make an essay change, I promise you that it WON’T be because you asked.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have sort of a similar question.</p>
<p>I submitted my application to Cornell and got deferred. Is it okay to ask my AO if I can email them my new Common App essay (since they’re also okay with additional reccs and stuff when you get deferred apparently)? Because of the early deadline (Nov 1st) I didn’t have much time to write the essay so it turned out pretty mediocre. But by Jan 1st when I submitted the rest of my applications it was 10x better, so would it be okay to ask? Or should I just not bother?</p>
<p>Truust–Colleges definitely do NOT want new essays from deferred ED and EA applicants. However, there are some exceptions. For instance, some candidates write supplemental post-deferral essays about a new and very significant experience that hadn’t occurred when they applied the first time. Key word here is “significant.” The admission folks don’t want to hear about how you made the basketball team (or didn’t). But if something happened to you that you feel is very important to share with admission officers, you could write about it. But it shouldn’t take the form of a second Common App essay, it would be more like an “Additional Information” essay.</p>
<p>The same would be true if you decided to reveal something significant that pre-dates your original application but you had–for whatever reasons–decided NOT to disclose it the first time around. For instance, I once knew a totally deaf high school girl who decided to apply to colleges without letting on that she was deaf. She didn’t want her disability to play any role in her outcomes. But once she was deferred, she changed her mind. She wanted admission officials to know the hurdles she’d overcome. (Don’t ask me if she got into her ED school in the Regular round because I don’t actually remember. This was about 10,000 kids ago for me.) But there are occasions when students change a stance on disclosing information that was not disclosed in the original application.</p>
<p>If you are a creative writer, you could also send a few samples of your written work, and these might include another essay as part of larger body of work that also includes a short story, play, or poems. So the new essay would be part of your writing dossier, but it should NOT come across as “Common App Essay-Trying Again.”</p>
<p>In other words, don’t send a “This essay is better than my last one” essay because colleges will not be pleased.</p>
<p>However, you SHOULD send a Update letter to Cornell that not only expresses your continued interest but also includes anything that’s new since November that you want the admission committee to know about. It’s nice to inject a little humor into this list, and thus one of your bullet items could be, “I wrote a new Common Application essay for my other schools that I like 10 times better than the one I sent to you. Do you want to see it or are you already staggering under a pile of 9,000 others?” </p>
<p>Who knows … maybe you’ll get an email back that says, “YES!”</p>
<p>@Sally Damnit I knew it was a bad idea… I was just concerned that improving my essay was going to boost my chances of admission…</p>
<p>But what if the college replied to me and says it’s OK to send the essay? So far 3/9 colleges have replied saying it’s okay, but I don’t know if just ignore them or send them the essay.
What do you propose?</p>
<p>Of course, if a college said it’s okay to send it, then do it. This whole process is far from an exact science and–like most things in life–the behaviors that irk some people don’t bother others in the least.</p>
<p>Another point I should have made earlier is that this has been a very atypical and confusing year for many admission officials because of all the tech problems that the new Common App roll-out has created. So admission folks are now accustomed to getting essays via email or even snail mail because the essay that was submitted electronically through the Common App was full of formatting snafus that were not the fault of the student. So if ever there was a time to submit a corrected essay, this is it.</p>
<p>All right. I’ll await to see if all of them reply.</p>
<p>But are you completely sure they won’t see me as a procrastinator or something like that? I really don’t want them to reject me because of this.</p>
<p>And if I don’t receive a reply by Monday, then that means I should NOT send another email, correct?</p>
<p>Sally…I was panicking and didn’t include humor. <.></p>
<p>what do the rest of u think? :OK I actually have a major issue. I created a website whose link I didnt mention in the app. But in my update message to Harvard I accidentally typed the wrong link that led to an inappropriate site ; ( I sent the correction in another message. but for some reason thr hyperlink to the wrong address was still there. I sent a third message with a clarification in case they click the link directly. I have anxiety guys so pls…tell me honestly but kindly…what u think.
my reasoning is that im ok bcuz I believe these emails just get forwarded to the file room. I just hope they dont consider me annoying.</p>